Cartoon by Brock Artis
You hear it all the time: We live in a time of political polarization.
It’s the right vs. the left, us vs. them, republicans vs. democrats, conservatives vs. liberals.
We tie ourselves to these labels and we don’t want to listen to any opposing viewpoints.
Despite what political part of the spectrum you find yourself aligned with, we are all guilty of this.
In fact, by this part of the staff ed, it is likely that 80 percent of readers stopped reading.
That’s not a judgement.
It’s a fact.
Humans don’t like their worldview to be shaken.
We like to think that we’re right and the other person is wrong, or uninformed or just plain crazy.
We like to place blame on individuals instead of the system that keep us at each other’s throats.
It is in this process that we have forgotten how to have an argument, how to disagree and how to convince others of our side, instead of just shutting down and saying “you’re just wrong.”
I know it’s hard.
You get drained and scared and angry and you can’t comprehend why anyone would disagree with this very obvious point you just made.
But that’s why being able to have these discussions is so important.
We must find out their reasons for believing what they do so we can have a conversation and convince them of our side.
We can no longer afford to be intolerant.
The stability and safety of our country depends on it.