I absolutely agree about the difficulty of listening to those different from ourselves, and it’s especially difficult to listen actively and intently when they are saying that maybe we ourselves are part of their being silenced or marginalised. For those in a clear position of privilege, I think that there is a responsibility to actively welcome dissent and critique as a positive rather than a negative. Where people are differently privileged or unprivileged, perhaps the challenge is to create a speech context together where dissent is part of a productive exchange, and I think that’s a challenge for many of us. It can be easier to silence, sometimes without knowing we are doing it. As a Scot, I’m a bit of a fan of Rabbi Burns and dear wikipedia provides a translation of the relevant verse 🙂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Louse
Can we see the louse on our own bonnet? and how does the louse feel? 🙂
Lastly, you are correct about treacle being viscous – perhaps you call it molasses. I couldn’t find a youtube video so I shared my own poor attempt 🙂 https://twitter.com/francesbell/status/772415237509279744