The other side: vaccines

Introducing "The other side", a series of lectures focused on tackling the divide between the different sides of pretty much every issue.

Today's world is filled with self-entitlement, very obvious on how defenders of different sides of controversial issues portray their opponents (this was very obvious in the way the left justified Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election by describing his voters as racists, sexists, homophobes, etc., and in the way the right describes leftists, as communists, snowflakes, cry-babies, etc.). We think that this is one of the main issues in our society, which dehumanises and delegitimises everyone that has contrary opinions. If nothing changes about this phenomenon, we fear that society will progress to increasingly larger divides between the different sides of important arguments and controversies, to a point where reaching a consensus will be impossible.

Therefore, we pretend to fight against this trend, by portraying the advocates of different sides of important issues in an unbiased manner, which will, hopefully, humanise them and legitimise their opinions and ideas. It is only by truly trying to understand the other side and their motivations that genuine consensus can be reached.

The first of this series of lectures was presented by Cat, the society's vice-president, and was focused on vaccines. Given the increasingly popular movement of people opposing the administration of vaccines, she tried to explain why some people are against vaccines, what worries them and why they are, rather than a bunch of anti-science lunatics, people with genuine concerns, which should be addressed.

For more information about the society, look up Dundee University Free Speech Society on Facebook or Instagram. To contact us, email freespeechsociety@dundee.ac.uk.