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By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Social media killed nuance and replaced it with the take

May 22, 2020 | 12:15 PM

I WOULD HATE TO BE RUNNING a high school debate club in 2020.

Normally, I’m squarely in the camp of ‘the good old days were mostly bad.’

But one thing that seems to get further lost as years go by is the ability to recognize and articulate nuance.

We are in the world of takes.

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A take is a simple black-and-white opinion on a subject that requires little to no support.

A hot take is an opinion that goes against the popular sentiment. A lukewarm or cold take goes along with the crowd.

And that’s about it. That’s all our public discourse has boiled down to nowadays.

The take is the enemy of good debate. It is shallow and lacks nuance.

Last week, I tried to make a relatively nuanced argument about Albertan tourism in B.C. ahead of the long weekend.

I returned after the long weekend to find a lot of irrational blowback to the editorial.

Angry readers and viewers thought it was an attack, and didn’t see any deeper into the argument I was trying to form.

Many in the audience had mistaken the editorial for a take — and who could blame them if that’s all they ever see on social media? It’s a cascading sea of takes.

It’s disheartening for an opinion writer – not so much that people are disagreeing with the argument. All editorialists should be able to take some disagreement.

But it’s disheartening that readers are misunderstanding the argument because they are not giving it the time and attention for a fulsome reading.

Should we give up on trying to build positions supported by other facts and conclusions and switch to nothing but takes?

Would it be more in tune with the current discourse if I came out with a series of point form opinions?

Pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza. Kamloops is superior to Kelowna. Country music is terrible.

There are some takes you can take with you. Reacting to them won’t take long; you can agree or disagree without any further thought.

What a good editorialist should do is inspire further thought, though, not give the audience shortcuts.

So in this space, I’ll continue to attempt that, and leave the takes to the social media horde.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.