First off, I don’t base my views on “what Americans are like” with what people post online. Just about everyone I know personally has just gone off the deep end it seems.
People I’ve known for decades who were “right of center” have now drifted to the far right. Where they used to support separation of church and state, small government, etc. they now want the government to tax the poor, establish a Christian ethnostate, and are openly talking about “the coming revolution”. Meanwhile, most everyone I’ve known who is leftist wants the government to disarm them, claims to be pro-LGBT but blindly supports any Muslim country and blindly hates Israel, and thinks Joe Biden is the “greatest president EVAR”.
Am I just in a weird bubble where 95% of the people in my life are politically and philosophically dipshits? Does anyone else experience this with people they actually know? I feel like I’m going crazy when I can be talking with a “leftist” about trans rights in Texas and then the very next conversation is about how wholesome they think the average Palestinian is in Gaza. Is there anyone else who’s at least left of center and recognizes that religious zealots in the Middle East want to kill you and shouldn’t be supported and religious zealots in YOUR OWN FUCKING COUNTRY want to kill you and you shouldn’t disarm yourself?
Just what the fuck is going on in this country? There’s so much disinformation and paid trolls that I don’t base these views off what’s online. I just run into the exact same lunacy with nearly everyone I’ve known my whole life.
I don’t know if you necessarily have to understand them, but you should still ask them about it, just to make them think about it.
Lots of people form their opinions out of their ass without ever being confronted with why they have hat opinion.
You don’t have to like these people, but you do need to co-exist. That’ll be difficult if they are allowed to dig themselves into their trenches without any resistance until they start flinging shit at each other.
The only way to avoid it getting worse is to engage in dialogue and keep questioning them. Don’t argue, don’t tell them what is right or wrong, just keep asking “why do you think that?”
The other side of that coin is to allow people to question your beliefs and to actually think about things when they do.
Those two things together is what will really help, imo.
They will ask eventually. I just don’t want to force anything on anyone
I believe that it is impossible to teach anyone anything, but it is possible for anyone to learn anything.
Understanding happens when someone thinks and reaches out.
I have asked them about it, and it generally goes one of two ways depending on which way they identify.
Rightwing: “Because it’s in the Bible.”
Leftwing: “I don’t know, I just think that.”
If a leftist cannot explain to you the reasonings behind their stances… They are a TERRIBLE leftist. Are you sure you’ve actually talked to people?!
I promise you, I know someone who has met only a single Palestinian in their entire life here in America and now believes that at least 80% of Palestinians in Gaza are not bigots because this one person isn’t. I also know somebody who has apparently found “leftist Qanon” and now believes that Hamas is good and literally has not murdered a single baby in Israel.
Who knows? Maybe the area I live in has just been polluted by something? Or maybe COVID fried everyone’s brain? I did move away for most of my life and only came back just before COVID.
I know you’ve met people like that.
The problem is you’re attempting to treat them as some beacon of political wisdom.
What?
Those are good answers. Not for understanding, but because it shows that they admittedly don’t really know, so they’ll now have to think about it.
It would be tempting to keep questioning why they believe in the bible or believe in something they don’t know, but that would likely only result in them getting angry and potentially digging further into their trench.
Don’t push them. You’ve already sown the first seed. Just step back and let them think. Maybe address the issue a while later and hear if they’ve become more open to alternative takes on the issue. That’s the entire point.