“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” —Aristotle
Make sure to keep an open mind and to expose yourself to opinions that you disagree with. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) believe everything that you hear, but that doesn’t mean that you need to argue about it either.
The problem with arguing, is that most people make personal attacks when they can’t convince the person they’re arguing with to change their mind. After trying to use reason and logic unsuccessfully, people often give up and resort to name calling.
In today’s day and age, it seems that the world is more divided than ever. Red versus blue, Democrat versus Republican, conservative versus liberal, secular versus non-secular – the list goes on and on. And when people are so invested with their team, tribe, or community being right, they often completely shut down any ideas from the opposing crowd, even if good points are made by the other party. For some reason, people feel that agreeing with the other side lowers their status amongst their team. The result? People become more and more extreme, almost compensating for others on their team who are more moderate. It becomes a competition for the individuals at the end of the spectrum. Who can speak up for more left-leaning or right-leaning policies? Or, using today’s terminology, who is more woke? In today’s world, there is no “entertaining opposing thoughts” without the possibility of being considered a flip-flopper, even if you are not actually accepting those thoughts.
How did we get to this point? It starts with what we consume. Are you watching Fox News or CNN all day, holding onto their every word? Are you only following people who align with your thought process on social media, where the tech giants’ main goal is to keep you on their platform, so they feed you stories to confirm your thoughts and make you stay on their website?
When you surround yourself with individuals who only care about making their side look better, no matter the cost, you are isolating yourself from the real issues at hand. The party you’re in will always put a positive spin on a negative story about themselves, expertly (or sometimes not) changing the subject, shifting the focus, or pointing the finger at someone else.
When you surround yourself only with people who have the same political agenda, you’re creating a bubble around you, in which you believe that everyone says the same thing. It’s like a cult. When this happens, you are either blindsided when people disagree with what your team says is a universal truth OR if you find yourself disagreeing with your tribe (having an opinion of your own), you’re less likely to speak up for fear of being chastised by your peers.
We need to avoid this “group think” and confirmation bias as much as possible. Listen to opposing viewpoints and block out other people’s opinions of those viewpoints. Try to find something good about what the other person is saying. Start with the good, and then you can pick apart the rest from there. You don’t have to agree with them or convert to their line of thinking, but you should listen to their ideas. If anything, it will make you understand the subject better, as now you will understand both sides and can make an informed decision based on your own research.