"And I think both the left and the right should celebrate people who have different opinions, and disagree with them, and argue with them, and differ with them, but don't just try to shut them up"
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Ebert isn’t playing centrist referee here; he’s defending the ecosystem that makes criticism possible. Coming from a film critic, this isn’t abstract civics. It’s occupational survival. A critic’s job is to dissent in public, to say the popular thing is overrated or the hated thing has merit, and then take the heat. So when he asks the left and right to “celebrate” opposing opinions, he’s really arguing for a culture mature enough to metabolize disagreement without reaching for the mute button.
The phrasing does a lot of work. “Celebrate” is an intentionally high bar, almost provocative: don’t merely tolerate the dissenter, value them. Then he stacks verbs - “disagree,” “argue,” “differ” - to normalize friction as a feature, not a bug. The rhythm mimics the messy, ongoing process of a real argument, where the point isn’t to win but to keep the conversation alive. That final pivot, “but don’t just try to shut them up,” is where the politeness drops. It’s a warning about power, not manners: silencing is what happens when we stop treating speech as something to answer and start treating it as something to eliminate.
The subtext is media-era: by the time Ebert is saying this, outrage cycles and ideological sorting have made disagreement feel like contamination. He’s insisting that a healthy culture - like a healthy arts scene - needs antagonists, not just allies.
The phrasing does a lot of work. “Celebrate” is an intentionally high bar, almost provocative: don’t merely tolerate the dissenter, value them. Then he stacks verbs - “disagree,” “argue,” “differ” - to normalize friction as a feature, not a bug. The rhythm mimics the messy, ongoing process of a real argument, where the point isn’t to win but to keep the conversation alive. That final pivot, “but don’t just try to shut them up,” is where the politeness drops. It’s a warning about power, not manners: silencing is what happens when we stop treating speech as something to answer and start treating it as something to eliminate.
The subtext is media-era: by the time Ebert is saying this, outrage cycles and ideological sorting have made disagreement feel like contamination. He’s insisting that a healthy culture - like a healthy arts scene - needs antagonists, not just allies.
Quote Details
| Topic | Respect |
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