On this solo episode of the How’d It Happen podcast, Mike talks about why and how ideas thrive with an audience. He was inspired to do this episode because he was listening to someone talking about how college campuses are dealing with or managing their way through what some might call controversial speakers.
Mike talks about the two obvious options when it comes to controversial speakers: go or don’t go. He then talks about two more nuanced options: social bullying and idea supremacists. Social bullying is basically the concept that if you go to see this controversial speaker that someone doesn’t like, appreciate, or want to have anything to do with, then if you choose to go, you are no longer their friend. Idea supremacists are those who actively try to prevent anyone from coming to see the speaker.
Mike believes that ideas thrive with an audience, and it works both ways. When you agree with someone and you give them an audience, the idea thrives. When you disagree with someone and you give them an audience, the idea also thrives. It’s when ideas are ignored or there’s no audience for the idea that ideas naturally become suppressed.
Mike encourages everyone to take the time to try to understand an idea before suppressing it. He believes that it’s important to hear both sides of a story and that someone expressing an opinion that you don’t agree with is not damaging you unless you internalize how you feel about what they’re saying. Tune in for more!
Quote from the episode:
“It’s when ideas are ignored or when there’s no audience for the idea that ideas naturally become suppressed.” – Mike Malatesta
Check out the video version of this episode below:
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Episode transcript below:
Speaker Mike Malatesta: Hey, everybody. It’s Mike, and this is a solo episode so of the How’d It Happen podcast. And today, I am going to be talking about why and how ideas thrive with an audience. Why ideas thrive with an audience. And I was inspired to do this podcast because I was listening to someone who was talking about, they were debating how college campuses in particular are dealing with or managing their way through what they’re what some might call controversial speakers. So a speaker gets invited to campus, and if the student body or some of the professors or whomever considers the speaker to be controversial or not aligned with their value systems or any number of other things, on this podcast, they were talking about, well, what can you do? What can you do as a participant? What are your options for dealing with this, and they identified a few options. And the first option was the obvious one. You either go to the talk, you go see the speaker, or you don’t go. And those are sort of the two I guess, easiest and simplest ways. So if you wanna see the speaker and you wanna hear what the speaker has to say, you wanna be able to ask questions of the speaker, you go. If you have no interest in the speaker and don’t wanna ask the speaker any questions, don’t care what the speaker has to say, well, then you don’t go. Right? Simple. Then there’s two other choices that they talked about that I found very interesting that are more nuanced than go or no go. And the first one of those is what these people called social bullying. So social bullying is basically the concept that if you go to see this controversial speaker that I don’t like, appreciate, wanna have anything to do with, or whatever you wanna say about the speaker, then If you choose to go, you are no longer gonna be my friend. You are no longer gonna be my friend if you go see this speaker that I don’t appreciate like, want to be around whatever. So that’s sort of the passive aggressive approach to not going or not going, but basically saying, I’m not going. And if you do, you are now my enemy, you are no longer my friend. So I’m just kind of being passive aggressive. The other is I think they called it an idea supremacist. So you’re an idea supremacist meaning Your idea of what this speaker is going to talk about or the idea of what this speaker is going to talk about against my idea of what I believe in or so misaligned that not only am I going to socially social be a social bully with everyone. I’m gonna take it a step further. I’m gonna be an active aggressor. I’m gonna go And I’m going to prevent or do my best, very best to prevent anyone from coming to see this speaker. And as I was listening to all these things, I was thinking to myself, Well, I understand the go and then don’t go, and I also understand or I think I understand the desire to express your own opinion about whether you are in agreement with a particular speaker or a particular idea or you’re not, I think where I get a little confused is this whole notion of ideas thrive with an audience and when I’m doing like the social bullying or when I’m doing the, you know, the idea of supremacist thing or I’m actively aggressive against it, it feels like I’m drawing a tremendous amount of attention to the idea or the person or the controversy And I’m not so sure that drawing attention to something that I don’t believe in is a very good strategy. I think drawing attention to what I do believe in is a better strategy. And as I was listening through this whole thing, that’s kept coming through to my mind. But I guess on top of that, I was thinking to myself, the the there’s so much power that can be given to another person by the actions that you take or don’t take. And in this case these protests and you know, this active aggression that you see and then you know, you sometimes see universities calling off the speaker because they’re afraid for the speakers safety, which seems nuts to me, but they’re afraid for this, that that would be a legitimate concern. I’m not saying the safety is not or because they think that their students shouldn’t be put in an environment where they’re exposed to these kinds of ideas. I think it’s a little short sighted. I’m trying to think of them in, like, in my own life, whether it’s politics or friends or business or social relationships or whatever, I’m constantly being exposed to ideas, some of which I think are great ideas, and some of which I think are silly ideas, and you might call them even controversial ideas And I I guess I’ve learned over the years that it’s important for me to hear both sides. Right? There’s two sides to every story as the saying goes, but there’s no way that someone that’s expressing an opinion that I don’t agree with is damaging me. They’re only damaging me when I internalize how I feel about what they’re saying and it makes me angry as opposed to me just paying them no attention. So I wanna leave you I just wanna leave you with this idea that ideas thrive with an audience, and it works both ways. When you agree with someone and you give them an audience, the idea is thrive. When you disagree with someone and you give them an audience, the idea is also thrive. It’s when ideas are ignored or when there’s no audience for the idea that ideas naturally become suppressed. And I think that’s probably the best approach, but I don’t wanna suppress an idea that I’ve never even taken the time to try to understand. I think that just makes me ignorant if I try to do something like that. And I know that I’m only speaking for myself here, but I do believe that ideas thrive with an audience. So you have a choice to make. Are you going to let an idea that you agree with thrive because you’re an audience for it, and or are you going to let an idea that you don’t agree with, continue to thrive because you are an audience for it. I thank you so much for joining me for this podcast today. I hope that your investment in the time has, I guess, given at least some value. And if it has, please consider sharing the episode You can hit follow or subscribe on whatever podcast platform you use. You can watch the video of this podcast on YouTube and subscribe to my channel there. And until next time, please maximize your greatness and make your future your property. Something that you are very proud to own.
