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An anti-universe full of irrelevant "factoids" and harsh "censorship"

I was recently invited to participate in a virtual meeting on the disproportionate psychological, economic, and social impact that the two years of the current pandemic have had on the Hispanic community in the United States, where 90 percent of Latinos lost jobs or significant income, and where two out of three Latinos say they will never recover.

Shortly after I shared the statistics I just mentioned, someone interrupted me to say that "the pandemic affected everyone" (as if talking about the impact of the pandemic on one group meant that other groups were not impacted) and that I was presenting just "factoids" (as if the data presented at the meeting were not based on serious research).

I then stated that my focus on how the pandemic affected Latinos was due to the fact that this was  precisely the topic that I had been asked to speak about and that the data shared (including the fact that, due to the pandemic, the life expectancy of Hispanics in the United States is now four years shorter than before) came from national studies carried out by recognized organizations (American Psychological Association, Lifeway Research, Pew Research Center, among others).

Almost immediately, another person, who claimed to be the coordinator of the conversation, although she was never introduced in that way, told me that she had to interrupt me because it was time to hear what other participants in the meeting had to say on the subject. Unsurprisingly, since none of those participants were Hispanic/Latino, no one brought up the subject.

In short, there is no worse deaf than someone who does not want to hear, and, in this context, information from reliable and verifiable sources becomes "factoid" (meaning a triviality that should not be paid any attention) and the potential dialogue becomes an exercise in censorship of everything that does not want to be heard.

That inability and unwillingness to open up to a dialogue that in turn leads to opening up to a new reality can only arise from closed minds and hearts, without any desire to understand the other and without a hint of empathy. And that negative social field, wherever it arises in the world, has sometimes small, but many times huge and terrible consequences. 

To be clear and direct: wars do not start when the first bullet is fired, but when the dialogue is broken. Sometimes it can be a “war” (note the quotes, please) between childish adults because someone doesn't like what they hear. And other times it can be a world war.

For this reason, within the framework of the known circumstances that we all face today, it can be said that a new global war has already begun, although perhaps it would be better to say that the Second World War never really ended, but rather changed dimension, as evidenced by the numerous wars of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Perhaps, as recently suggested, we live in an anti-universe in which we are continually going backwards.

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