CGC

We have a problem.

Tribalism is increasingly becoming the status quo: you're either with us or against us; you're either ally or enemy. There's no center, there's no in between, there's no grey, there's no room left for nuance nor healthy disagreement and, as a consequence, we're losing our ability to engage in respectful and productive dialogue, especially so across political lines.

And we want to change that.

We want to ask the important but controversial questions, then try to find common ground. We want to exemplify the process whereby different people with different beliefs can come to the table and engage in meaningful conversation; whereby disagreement doesn't have to degenerate into denigration; whereby the winning of a debate is not the ultimate goal . Instead, it can be critical thinking and collaborative sense-making via productive dialogue.

We also believe that those advocating for change and reform are held to account and reasonably expected to explain why they believe what they believe and rationalize the merit in their demands. Amongst activists and protesters, we want to 'separate the wheat from the chaff': what is a well-thought-through solution (wheat) and what is just cheap, resentment-driven virtue-signalling (chaff)?

Now, unavoidably, some feathers will be ruffled in the process. Some people don't see eye-to-eye with us on the mission; they don't want us to ask the questions and instead, they want us to kowtow quietly, tail between our legs, guilted into silent submission. And to that, we say a clear and simple 'no'. If you're an unthinking idealogue overly attached to your beliefs without good reason - whether you are left, right, center, up, down, we do not care . We will ask you: what do you believe and why, because at our core we are fundamentally anti-dogma, wherever that dogma comes from on the political spectrum.

As a consequence, by our very nature, we are not sunshine, rainbows and lollipops here at CGC. If anything, we are the exact opposite. This is not an intellectual safe space where your ideas are coddled, where your beliefs and emotions are bubble-wrapped and protected from any and all scrutiny and criticism in the name of 'common ground' . No. This is a place where you will be asked, respectfully, to articulate and explain what you believe and why. And if you take offense to that, we make no apologies. That is a you problem.

So, to summarise, our mission is threefold: (1) to promote critical thinking, (2) to promote productive dialogue, and (3) to hold everyone, especially changemakers and activists, accountable to rationalizing their ideas and beliefs.

With all that said, let us not shy away from the difficult conversations that need to be had. Let us, instead, confront them together head-on, shoulder-to-shoulder, and may the best ideas prosper and pull us forward as a collective.