The Great Debate

Better Things creator and star Pamela Adlon on the benefits of healthy disagreement

- Samantha Simon

Reactivity is off the charts right now, especially when it comes to politics. We’re all a bunch of raw, jangly nerves, and people are listening only to the sound bites they want to hear before attacking. It’s happening constantly on social media, with everyone making personal, ethical, and moral decisions based on bumper-sticker tweets. Have I ever had a real debate on Twitter? No f—ing way!

So in this knee-jerk, shoot-from-the-hip environment, it might seem as if there’s no point in talking. But we need to. For us to come together as a country, we have to start hearing one another—and I mean really listening, not just waiting for someone’s lips to stop moving before it’s your turn to speak.