Who’s right? Who’s wrong?
Illustration by Gabriela de Camargo Goncalves
Teairrah Green, Contributing Writer
After George Floyd’s tragic death, one of my teammates made a post on social media that alluded to her “not seeing color” and not believing she had unconscious biases.
Her perspective left me wondering why she would subscribe to that belief, so I asked her to explain her perspective to me. To my surprise, she said she has never treated anyone differently because of their skin color.
Unfortunately, the way in which she articulated her opinions failed to be considerate of the feelings and perspectives of others. However, she vocalized what she viewed as morally correct.
I continued to ask myself: Is she wrong or right? How do we decide? These questions led me to realize a right or wrong side does not exist when assessing beliefs or opinions.
For many polarizing opinions, we love to think there is a right or wrong side. But aren’t we all socially conscious people trying to navigate a morally correct way to live in the world? Not to say we are all inherently good, but instead, we are all struggling to align our reality with our morality.
We continuously struggle to align the two because the world is not good or bad. How can we moralize something that is not moral itself? I cannot say if my teammate’s belief was right or wrong. However, I can say their belief helped them navigate the chaotic world the best they can.
Nothing we believe will ever be right or wrong. Beliefs are extremely abstract and subjective; they cannot be minimized into two categories.
On a personal level, we categorize our beliefs or opinions as good or bad to simplify our complex world. But with a global view, it is not effective to classify the complexity of human thoughts in this way.
Someone else with a different upbringing, life, social norm and perspective will have a different moral compass. Thus, they will have opposing beliefs or opinions. It is absurd to make a universal assumption that one belief or opinion is 100% incorrect or correct.
If we switched brains with someone who categorized our “rights” as “wrongs,” would we view our beliefs the same? Everything is subjective and our beliefs are solely predicated on our moral compass.
Essentially, arguments are individuals questioning others’ morality. If two passionate individuals with opposing views decide to debate on a topic, like climate change, they are not debating about climate change. Instead, they would be arguing what they believe is the right thing to believe in order to be a “good” person.
Distinguishing what we believe to be right from wrong is an essential tool utilized during our formative years. If a person is deemed morally incorrect in their beliefs, they are ostracized until they accept the norms established by the social group they interact with. This is why we attach the idea of right or wrong to many of our opinions or beliefs.
Arguments reveal more about the arguer instead of the subject matter being argued.
For example, someone argues they believe strawberries are the worst fruit on this planet. Instead of addressing the argument at hand, the arguer would slowly dissect their beliefs and opinions about strawberries, possibly telling a personal anecdote of how they developed a hatred toward the fruit. In the end, we are exposed to the arguer’s thought process, beliefs, perspective and opinions rather than the argument at hand.
Arguments can inform us about others’ beliefs and opinions. If we are able to assess arguments as mediums to understand other perspectives, we will benefit as a community.
