Making Conflicts Constructive – A Conversation with Amanda Ripley

Journalist Amanda Ripley, author of the influential essay ‘Complicating the Narratives’ and a new book High Conflict – Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out, joins Anna Gát and friends to explore the most likely to succeed ways out of our current communication breakdowns, online and offline, public and private.

A few years ago, a formidable essay appeared on the internet titled ‘Complicating the Narratives,’ offering practical advice for softening polarisation and groupishness, with simple—even ancient—methods. The Interintellect movement itself was deeply inspired by the author Amanda Ripley’s ideas and findings outlined in the piece, and so we couldn’t be happier to now welcome her in our midst to talk about her excellent new book, High Conflict. If you enjoy Interintellect, come join us for this conversation to get some similar inspiration for yourself!

Yascha Mounk wrote about High Conflict:

Ripley shows that the process of escaping [high conflict] situations usually involves five steps. Participants in the conflict, she suggests, need to “investigate the understory” that made them so invested in the first place. They should “reduce the binary,” recognizing that they may share more values and interests with their adversaries than they realize. They must “marginalize the fire starters,” ceasing to listen to those who seem to get a thrill out of the fight. They should “buy time and make space,” stopping themselves from escalating when they feel triggered. Most important, they need to “complicate the narrative,” recognizing that any story in which one side consists of pure heroes and the other of cartoonish villains is unlikely to be altogether accurate.

We hope to see you there!

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Useful links:

https://thewholestory.solutionsjournalism.org/complicating-the-narratives-b91ea06ddf63

https://www.amazon.com/High-Conflict-Why-Get-Trapped/dp/1982128569

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/books/review/high-conflict-amanda-ripley.html

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