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
- cruel
- flaws
- deepening
- rhetorical
- front
- conversation
- dignity
- grenades
- nuance
- learned
- deserves
- 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
- acknowledge
- anathema
- broken
- brought
- bullies
- bunkers
- call
- camp
- celebrate
- chosen
- church
- complexity
- compromise
- conversation
- country
- cruel
- debate
- deepening
- deserves
- destructive
- devolves
- dignity
- discourse
- diversity
- divided
- elites
- emerging
- empathy
- equality
- flaws
- freedom
- front
- good
- grenades
- grow
- humanity
- impulses
- justice
- learned
- liberal
- line
- lob
- long
- memory
- merits
- mind
- misogynist
- nuance
- outbreaks
- party
- path
- people
- polarization
- positions
- prosperity
- public
- question
- racist
- refuse
- remember
- rhetorical
- routinely
- ruled
- side
- sniping
- target
- time
- tolerance
- understanding
- violence
- walked
- world
- write
- years