Have The Conversation, Save The World
Civil Discussion Among People Who Disagree Can Do So Much To Make A Better Society

A few months ago I wrote about how people are afraid of different ideas. The situation seems to have gotten worse.
For example, Out magazine published an article last week wherein the author advocates dropping friends who are Republicans. And then last night someone poured a bottle of water over broadcaster/comedian Kat Timpf before she was scheduled to speak at an event in Brooklyn.
This idea that all people with differing opinions are necessarily bad and, in some cases, worthy of assault, is an intellectual climate at about the level of Neanderthal society. It’s not living up to the standard of a civilization coming from the tradition of heavyweight thinkers like Smith, Locke, Hume, and Jefferson.
It’s insult culture. It’s a conscious refusal to engage and understand. It’s the ridiculous idea that exposing yourself to an opposing idea will somehow infect you with that idea. It’s a failure to admit that empathy is a real thing.
It harms the individual and it harms the society.
In a civil society, you only get to punch a Nazi if said Nazi is in the process of punching you. And refusing to assault a Nazi does not make you a Nazi, it in fact makes you better than a Nazi. You’ll do more to fight Nazism by reading up about it than by picking a fight with its members.
In the last election, I didn’t vote for Trump and I didn’t vote for Clinton. So, pretty much everyone I interact with doesn’t agree with me. I have not dropped a friend over it, and I’ve certainly never accosted anyone because of it. Actually, the situation energizes me. It’s an opportunity to understand so many other people, even when that process gets very frustrating, which it does with regularity.
But just a few weeks ago I was having drinks with a friend with whom I disagree on several issues, and it was great to hash them out. Neither of us changed our minds. I understand him a little more, he understands me a little more, and I understand myself a little more as well.
Having the conversation does not force concession, but rather introspection, and that sort of thinking has been central to philosophy since Socrates.

In addition, conversations between those with differing opinions helps keep society healthy. To paraphrase Maajid Nawaz, uniformity of thought in politics is fascism, uniformity of thought in religion is theocracy. Anecdotally, it is also boring and stagnant.
So, wherever you may stand on the multitude of contentious issues in society today, talk to the person next to you on the spectrum — who maybe isn’t the person physically next to you. But make the effort, have the conversation, be cool about it, and grow from it.
