{"id":36893,"date":"2017-01-12T03:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T08:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=36893"},"modified":"2017-01-11T10:14:54","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T15:14:54","slug":"getting-outside-your-bubble-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2017\/01\/12\/getting-outside-your-bubble-for-the-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting outside your bubble for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annalisa Merelli<\/a> recounts her experiences after she voted “no” in the Italian referendum, unlike the majority of her friends:<\/p>\n

On Dec. 4, Italians went to the polls to decide on a reform referendum that would redefine the power of local governments and reduce the power of the senate. With a high turnout, my countrymen rejected the reform. In the press, the voters\u2019 decision was described as an Italian Brexit, and a triumph of populism. Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement, arguably Europe\u2019s largest populist party, celebrated with Matteo Salvini, leader of the xenophobic Northern League; Marine Le Pen sent congratulations via Twitter, claiming that Italians\u2019 had disavowed not just their prime minister, but the entire European Union.<\/p>\n

What had actually happened, however, was more nuanced. And yet, the disappointment amongst liberals \u2014 the majority of whom had supported the reforms \u2014 was palpable.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

It was a difficult vote, and while I stand by it, I don\u2019t discount the possibility that history may prove me wrong. So I was eager to hear the reasons why so many of my friends had voted \u201cyes.\u201d Before and after the vote, I wanted to understand their points, and I certainly respected their choices.<\/p>\n

But they \u2014 the yes voters, whose opinions and commentary filled my social media platforms \u2014 didn\u2019t seem to have the same respect for my reasoning. As an opinionated citizen with consistently liberal views, I am used to being attacked and insulted by conservatives for my choices and opinions. But the liberal critiques I read weren\u2019t so much attacking my decision as they were questioning my intelligence and my ability to understand the issue.<\/p>\n

For the first time in my life, I was on the outside of the so-called liberal bubble, looking in. And what I saw was not pretty. I watched as many of my highly educated friends and contacts addressed those who disagreed with them with contempt and arrogance, and an offensive air of intellectual superiority.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

H\/T to John Donovan<\/a> for the link.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annalisa Merelli recounts her experiences after she voted “no” in the Italian referendum, unlike the majority of her friends: On Dec. 4, Italians went to the polls to decide on a reform referendum that would redefine the power of local governments and reduce the power of the senate. With a high turnout, my countrymen rejected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,339,53],"tags":[1020,593],"class_list":["post-36893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-italy","category-politics","tag-progressives","tag-socialmedia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-9B3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36894,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36893\/revisions\/36894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}