full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Megan Phelps-Roper: I grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church. Here's why I left

Unscramble the Blue Letters

This has been at the fornt of my mind lately, because I can't help but see in our public discourse so many of the same destructive impulses that ruled my former church. We celebrate tolerance and diversity more than at any other time in memory, and still we grow more and more divided. We want good things — justice, equality, freedom, dgtiniy, prosperity — but the path we've chosen looks so much like the one I walked away from four years ago. We've broken the world into us and them, only emerging from our bunkers long enough to lob roiteachrl grednaes at the other camp. We write off half the country as out-of-touch liberal elites or racist misogynist bullies. No nacnue, no complexity, no htnuamiy. Even when someone does call for empathy and understanding for the other side, the citosroenavn nearly always devolves into a debate about who deverses more empathy. And just as I lenerad to do, we routinely refuse to acknowledge the falws in our positions or the merits in our opponent's. Compromise is anathema. We even target people on our own side when they dare to question the party line. This path has brought us cuerl, sniping, deeiennpg polarization, and even outbreaks of violence. I remember this path. It will not take us where we want to go.

Open Cloze

This has been at the _____ of my mind lately, because I can't help but see in our public discourse so many of the same destructive impulses that ruled my former church. We celebrate tolerance and diversity more than at any other time in memory, and still we grow more and more divided. We want good things — justice, equality, freedom, _______, prosperity — but the path we've chosen looks so much like the one I walked away from four years ago. We've broken the world into us and them, only emerging from our bunkers long enough to lob __________ ________ at the other camp. We write off half the country as out-of-touch liberal elites or racist misogynist bullies. No ______, no complexity, no ________. Even when someone does call for empathy and understanding for the other side, the ____________ nearly always devolves into a debate about who ________ more empathy. And just as I _______ to do, we routinely refuse to acknowledge the _____ in our positions or the merits in our opponent's. Compromise is anathema. We even target people on our own side when they dare to question the party line. This path has brought us _____, sniping, _________ polarization, and even outbreaks of violence. I remember this path. It will not take us where we want to go.

Solution

  1. cruel
  2. flaws
  3. deepening
  4. rhetorical
  5. front
  6. conversation
  7. dignity
  8. grenades
  9. nuance
  10. learned
  11. deserves
  12. humanity

Original Text

This has been at the front of my mind lately, because I can't help but see in our public discourse so many of the same destructive impulses that ruled my former church. We celebrate tolerance and diversity more than at any other time in memory, and still we grow more and more divided. We want good things — justice, equality, freedom, dignity, prosperity — but the path we've chosen looks so much like the one I walked away from four years ago. We've broken the world into us and them, only emerging from our bunkers long enough to lob rhetorical grenades at the other camp. We write off half the country as out-of-touch liberal elites or racist misogynist bullies. No nuance, no complexity, no humanity. Even when someone does call for empathy and understanding for the other side, the conversation nearly always devolves into a debate about who deserves more empathy. And just as I learned to do, we routinely refuse to acknowledge the flaws in our positions or the merits in our opponent's. Compromise is anathema. We even target people on our own side when they dare to question the party line. This path has brought us cruel, sniping, deepening polarization, and even outbreaks of violence. I remember this path. It will not take us where we want to go.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
picket line 3

Important Words

  1. acknowledge
  2. anathema
  3. broken
  4. brought
  5. bullies
  6. bunkers
  7. call
  8. camp
  9. celebrate
  10. chosen
  11. church
  12. complexity
  13. compromise
  14. conversation
  15. country
  16. cruel
  17. debate
  18. deepening
  19. deserves
  20. destructive
  21. devolves
  22. dignity
  23. discourse
  24. diversity
  25. divided
  26. elites
  27. emerging
  28. empathy
  29. equality
  30. flaws
  31. freedom
  32. front
  33. good
  34. grenades
  35. grow
  36. humanity
  37. impulses
  38. justice
  39. learned
  40. liberal
  41. line
  42. lob
  43. long
  44. memory
  45. merits
  46. mind
  47. misogynist
  48. nuance
  49. outbreaks
  50. party
  51. path
  52. people
  53. polarization
  54. positions
  55. prosperity
  56. public
  57. question
  58. racist
  59. refuse
  60. remember
  61. rhetorical
  62. routinely
  63. ruled
  64. side
  65. sniping
  66. target
  67. time
  68. tolerance
  69. understanding
  70. violence
  71. walked
  72. world
  73. write
  74. years