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Jeff Kirk's avatar

"But the one action that I do not hear suggested as much is one that is available to just about everyone: You should talk to other people who may have different political beliefs than you—not only for the purpose of understanding them, but ultimately for the purpose of persuading them to change their thinking."

Yes, THIS. A thousand times THIS! That said, I'd also recommend at least keeping tabs on what's being written in the media consumed by the other side – within reason: I mean Fox News's website, not any bizarrely demented Telegram channels – if only to understand what they're *not* seeing.

Perfect case in point: when the stock market first collapsed due to Trump's tariffs, you'd've seen nary a mention of it on Fox News (TV or web): for the first time in 30 years, they removed their daytime chyrons with the real-time Dow & Nasdaq figures. Instead, a brazenly classist & racist story involving a high school stabbing in suburban Dallas has been the most "important" news to note. (One of the students was white. The other was Black. I think you can guess who stabbed the other and its purported "relevance.")

Point being: it isn't merely a matter of disagreeing. It's also a matter of one side receiving vastly different versions of the news even if they're *not* particularly MAGA-crazed.

Obviously that only goes so far, as Trump is seeing in his dismal polling numbers, but these types of conversations with Trump fans are proportionately more difficult depending on their level of indoctrination.

I agree that discussions of values are helpful, but we're still basically talking about trying to deprogram cultists here to a considerable degree.

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John's avatar

“Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.”

— Malcolm X

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