Attributed to the late Martha Mitchell, wife of the then Attorney General Oxford defines it as “A misinterpretation of a person’s justified belief as a delusion, often by a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, or general practitioner.”
Climate deniers, election deniers, COVID vaccine deniers, The Science deniers and all kind of deniers. Treated as delusional and even reprehensible, anything to discredit their position and beliefs. Some even advocate their incarceration and even death for those who hold different views.
The so-called conventional wisdom, even The Science is often wrong. Jumping on a politically correct and convenient Bandwagon, often leads to regret, lose of reputation, political demise or worse.
Martha Mitchell was ultimately proved correct in her thinking, although being vilified at the time. For that matter so was Galileo Galilei whose Inquisition by the Church was because he supported the Copernican theory that all celestial things revolved around planet Earth. The Science has long disproved the Church in earthly matters.
Plausible Deniability
Perhaps those yelling DENIER the loudest are guilty of being deniers themselves. As Shakespeare is credited with, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” So if one follows this line of thinking, Scientifically. Those screaming are actually the deniers. Not the other way around.
Without realistic dialogue about those issues that matter, there will always be a ‘She Said, He Said’ component of personal, business, political and social positions. Closed minds on either side of the argument, kill constructive movement forward.
Martha Michell was vilified in a pre-Internet period. Yet her points were proven correct. So was Galileo as well as others. It seems convenient to SCREAM the other side as evil. What good does that attitude accomplish?
Who is the Real Denier You or the other the Denier?
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The author’s credentials in this field are available on his LinkedIn page. Moreover, Dr. Shemwell is a coauthor for an in press book (to be released in Spring 2023) titled, “Smart Manufacturing: Integrating Transformational Technologies for Competitiveness and Sustainability.” His focus is on Operational Technologies.
“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.” (Martin Luther King speech at Cornell College, 1962). For more information on Cross Cultural Engagement, check out our Cross Cultural Serious Game. You can contact this author as well.
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