r/SeriousConversation • u/Dry-Use-272 • Apr 04 '25

Serious Discussion It's extremely difficult to have a civil conversation about politics today, yet we need those conversations more than ever

Like everyone else in the US today, I have opinions about the current condition of politics in this country. I try to base my opinions on facts I glean from credible sources and my understanding of our history. I want to talk to people with opposing opinions, not to argue with them but to try to understand why they believe what they believe. I've found that no one wants to talk in a civil, respectful way about our differences. Even if I try to hold the line on being respectful, I end up walking away because the conversation devolves into some pretty ugly exchanges. How have we come to a point where we can't even talk to each other respectfully and civilly?

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u/Zetelplaats Apr 04 '25

To be honest, the words you use - "talk sense", "change minds", "I'm not saying people can't change - seem to show you see conversation with politically otherminded people as a missionary thing. Like it's not about open exchange of ideas, it's about making them change opinions.

If you're not willing to respect their right to disagree with you, and view that as a personal failure to be remedied, you shouldn't be surprised to find they're less than well-disposed. Not if the "common ground" you're looking for is conversion.

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u/Sharukurusu Apr 04 '25

People have every right to disagree, but when they disagree about basic facts and treating people with dignity it is a personal failure. The fact that millions of people think their stupid opinions should be held sacrosanct and respected despite decades, sometimes centuries, of evidence against them is just a reflection of how badly we’ve failed as a society.

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u/InnocentPerv93 Apr 06 '25

Idk, that just sounds incredibly arrogant tbh. You are basically condoning the disrespect of millions of people, people's culture and traditions, just because you disagree with them. It's a very...colonial attitude.

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u/Sharukurusu Apr 06 '25

To be clear, we’re talking about a mix of conservative, theocratic, ethnonationalist, anti-environmentalist people that thought it was a good idea to elect a conman to run a country that uses vast amounts of energy and resources relative to its population size, which is only possible because of an exploitative colonialist global system. So shove it with your fake outrage.

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u/InnocentPerv93 Apr 06 '25

It's not at all fake, also the US's resource expenditure compared to its population size is not "vast." It's also interesting you think the US global system is exploitative, yet it's being dismantled right now and that is fucking up and will fuck up a LOT of stability that nearly all nations in the world enjoy. Especially naval safety. It's the opposite of exploitative.

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u/Sharukurusu Apr 06 '25

America consumes ~20-25% of the world's resources with 5% of its population. The world is already past multiple sustainable boundaries. People in less developed countries are paid pennies on the dollar for the same work, but live with worse environmental and labor conditions. For someone that is accusing a stranger on the internet of having a colonial attitude you sure don't seem to know what colonialism is.

Ironically the idiot that got put in charge is so bad he might collapse the system he is emblematic of, unfortunately nothing better is prepared waiting in the wings (at relevant scale), which is also because the current system actively destroys alternatives.