How do we avoid fanning the flames of divisive politics?

This is something I’ve thought about extensively over the past few years

Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash

Too often, people use us v. them terminology to mark the “ingroup” and the “outgroup.”

Differences, rather than being celebrated, can divide us.

Some would argue the politics that someone aligns with shows which values they care about.

Some would argue that certain political parties have no morals or values whatsoever.

The problem with this is that it paints people who don’t agree with you as villains rather than people.

Once you get to know people, you can see how we’re more similar than we think.

Social media has exacerbated our echo chambers, but now that I’ve been off it, I think I’m more moderate than I used to be.

Some people say you grow more conservative as you grow older. I’m 28 years young and maybe my views haven’t shifted as drastically, but at least I’m not fanning the flames.

I’m working on my tendency to immediately block or dissociate with someone based on political beliefs. I think that sort of narrow-mindedness ought to be discouraged.