How often do you interact with people that don’t share the same beliefs as you?
As high school students in suburban Naperville, it’s difficult to do just that because we already have many things in common. We do have a fairly diverse racial makeup, though(Asian (18%) Hispanic (11%) Black (6%) White (62%))
Still, I find that during lunch periods or after school, notable homogenous groups congregate around each other and within those groups, gender often is divided too. Through hanging out with people similar to us in real life along with the online bubble we find ourselves in, our beliefs are rarely challenged because we’ve come to expect the few contradictions that our community presents us with.
Paradoxically though, even when Americans are more likely to congregate around people they agree with, our country has become more divided. This infographic from the Pew Research Center strikingly illustrates how the ideological gap between Democrats and Republicans has widened just in the past two decades. Keep in mind that this is from 5 years ago and continuing with the trend, the gap is even wider today.
The effects of these divisions are limitless. Fewer Americans are willing to maintain relationships with family members who fall across the political spectrum. If people aren’t even willing to interact with their family members then it’d be highly unlikely that they would be willing to engage in discourse with anyone else who similarly disagrees with them. A fact that I came across that terrifies me is that we increasingly dehumanize people on the other side of the political aisle. That is, we don’t treat them as humans anymore. Once we start down this dangerous road, there’s little stopping us from closing off any form of empathy for them and acting in ways that our morals would’ve stopped if the subjects were thought of as humans.
Unfortunately, the future doesn’t look so promising as our country doesn’t seem to be shying away from increased polarization anytime soon.
However, there is a way to embrace our polar opposite points of view. And that is to embrace each other. I know that probably wasn’t the magical solution you were looking for but this simple answer really is it. The problem is is that we hear it but don’t actually live the advice out.
One of the first instances where we interact politically with the world is through the media. It’s not a surprise then that when mainstream media prefers to feature panels of arguments that dismiss the viewpoint considered “wrong” without fully understanding the point that the other person is trying to make, our own abilities to listen is impaired.
I am here to tell you to not lose hope, however. There are media options that have challenged my values and in some cases, completely altered them to a stance that I never thought I would have. Vice News has taken me behind the lines into the worlds of people that I most likely will never have the opportunity to experience. They’ve allowed me to visualize the stories behind the tragic news stories that surround them with numbers.
Then, there’s the amazing Jubilee that stops giving cliche advice to listen and instead shows that productive debate can occur between 2 sets of people literally on the opposite sides of any controversial issue. It’s amazing how they are able to put aside their differences while still remaining steadfast on their own conflicting beliefs. The thought-provoking conversations can often get pretty heated but every time at the end of the video, the viewer can see them actively embracing each other as if they were family. If you are able to respect someone even after you clearly disagree with them, then it reveals a dignity on your part that is hard to find. Not surprisingly, once you have someone’s respect, it becomes possible then to change their mind but this never comes before the first step of respect. We too often forget that at the end of the day we are all human beings with feelings and emotions and most importantly, are imperfect and have biases.
Obviously, like most people, I didn’t come across this issue just last week; political polarization has been an intriguing topic for the past decade. What inspired me to write this blog post was a Ted Talk(in Naperville no less) that expounded upon the importance of listening. The speaker was a crisis hostage negotiator and from him, I gained the perspective that if he were able to engage in meaningful conversations with murderers, robbers, and kidnappers, then I, nor should anyone, make an excuse that they couldn’t deal with another person who held different beliefs than them.
I credit these videos and much more with developing a hesitation before judging others for their values because I know that if I were in their shoes and grew up as they did, I would have the same beliefs too. This quality has allowed me to learn things I never would’ve if I choose to close myself off within my own “right” beliefs.
So, I hope that you, the reader, took something away from this. No matter how different you may think you are from another person, your commonalities far outweigh the differences.
Check out my recent favorite video from Vice News. Maybe you’ll see Trump supporters in a different light(I did).
I really liked this blog! The idea of “homoegenous groups” is very prevalent, and I personally have even noticed that I tend to put myself in that bubble sometimes, because it seems easier to be with people with the same ideas. But there’s so much to gain from people with different perspectives, and one of the best ways for us to grow and gain a greater understanding of ourselves and the world is through meeting new people and accepting them for who they are. I like that you brought up Jubilee, I recently started watching a lot of their videos. They have so many cool ideas, like the one you mentioned with the two groups of opposing viewpoints discussing, but also one of my favorites is the one where there’s a group of people with one thing in common, but they have to find the one “odd one out.” The message is similar, in the sense that people tend to make initial judgments based on first impressions, but usually end up being wrong and realize that there was more to that person than their physical qualities, or specific belief.
Yup! I think when we spend time around others that think like us, we create echo chambers that essentially reinforce our own beliefs, leading to a positive feedback loop that just entrenches us even further in our beliefs.
I think one big part of this issue is the presence of social media. You get to choose who you follow on Twitter or Instagram, and who to subscribe to on Youtube–you will literally only see what you want to see, which will be in line with your beliefs.
How do you think we can solve this dynamic issue, especially with the advent of social media?
I think what you talk about in this blog post is a really important message that everyone need to hear. My family has a similar situation that you mentioned. One of my brothers in apart of the LGBTQ+ community and my grandparents and cousins do not support this “lifestyle”. It leads to very tense and awkward family gathering because they are unwilling to branch from the beliefs they are comfortble with. They fact the this closemindedness can rip apart even families is terrifying. I think it is more important now than ever, to be able to talk calmly and with an open mind to those with an opposing view point. What do you think is a good stratagy to be able to talk with someone who thinks differentlu than you?