Props to the prof

So I have to give a big, humongous shout out to my teacher and friend, Amanda Byron. She took on Lars Larson today and she was awesome awesome awesome! I'm not linking to Lars' site because I think he's extremely unpleasant but you can google it if you must visit. Anyway, I was incredibly impressed by Amanda's composure, especially in the face of some very inflammatory commentary and responses back from Larson.

I think the reason she was on the show is because she teaches a class called Enmification: The Art and Consequence of Enemy-Making. I sat in on the class last year and it's good. Larson focused in on a sentence in the description that mentions the United States' fascination with enemy-making and badgered Amanda throughout the show about what that statement meant. Sadly enough, everytime she explained he misunderstood or simply didn't listen.

His deliberate attempts to twist her statements and explanations were obvious and, I think, unsuccessful. I thought he came off as embarrassing himself - largely because she remained calm, reasonable, and willing to hear him out while he didn't offer the same courtesy. There were moments when I thought he might actually be ready to have an actual discussion about the issue but then he'd throw back another flaming comment.

I was so proud of her - she absolutely stood her ground in a calm and compassionate way but she refused to allow her point to be lost or covered up by his rhetoric. I think the saddest thing about the entire event was that his reaction to her and what she had to say perfectly exemplified what she was talking about - the fear or doubt or isolation that keeps us from really listening to and trying to understand those who think and behave differently than we do.

Go Amanda!!!