It is nearly impossible to find someone who shares all the opinions you do, and the severity of this issue can vary. But it’s also hopeless to avoid people who share different
perspectives from you.
Lately, people seem to be following the pattern of going out of their way to avoid communicating with the other side — we place ourselves in echo chambers, surrounding ourselves
only with people who will nod and agree when we speak.
Photo taken from Creative Commons.
We constantly involve ourselves with people who share our opinions to the point where when we do chance upon someone who doesn’t, we’re taken aback. For example, after the
results of last years presidential elections, many Trump supporters in our mostly liberal community, felt more emboldened to speak out and we were shocked as we came to the
realization that there are people in this community who aren’t left-leaning. While many were in shock of this reality, it was necessary that we came to terms with our differing
opinions.
We need people to disagree with us, to show us that our way of thinking isn’t the only one that exists, so that we are prompted to understand why they disagree, and start
conversations that can help us stop demonizing different views.The least these conversations can do is help us to hear out the other side and to start understanding another
point of view.
Befriending these people who share opposing views from us helps us view things with a different perspective and have a wider outlook on why things are the way the are.
We start to realize why there is always two sides of an argument. Turning the other side into this monster that should be avoided at all costs helps no one in the long run.
It isolates everyone into their own little bubble festering with hatred.
Daryl Davis is a perfect example of the good that can spark from befriending those with other opinions. A black man famously known for befriending members of the KKK,
Davis has convinced over 200 people to leave the organization simply through his friendship. He doesn’t start these friendships with the intent of getting them to leave the
KKK, but instead calmly asks, “How can you hate me if you don't even know me?”
This simple question, this calm form of confrontation, is something that helped hundreds of KKK members to realize their hate was misguided. So while it’s easy to get into
a heated shouting match, if we want to enact change, it’s more important that we take the time to befriend those with other opinions and stop the dehumanization of opposing
sides.
While this is true, there is the hinderance of fear blocking us from those with different beliefs because those beliefs can be harmful to either a specific person or a whole
group of people. The fear of getting hurt or even getting killed has stemmed from years of being exposed to immense oppression forms that closed-mindedness.
Ever since we were little, we have frequently said the phrase “Never judge a book by it’s cover”, and at some point we just stopped applying it to our daily lives. We tend
to go into situations with an expectation or thought about the particular matter instead of freeing ourselves from these thoughts and diving into the circumstance headfirst.
Coming across face to face with this other side also helps us to take a step back and understand the world better. We need to start befriending the other side, even if that
means simply willing to listen to what they have to say. Nobody wants to hear that they are wrong — but we need to stop being afraid of it.
