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When former Vice President Joe Biden was projected to become elected as the 46th President of the United States on Nov. 7, America saw both protests and celebrations in lieu of the news. This is just one of the many examples of the country becoming more politically polarized, with the mindset that one is either a staunch Republican or staunch Democrat. We are also becoming divided within our social circles: with friendships and even families being jeopardized because of divergent political ideologies. As of now, it seems that whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or anything in between, no one is listening to each other. I wonder: will we be able to come together as a nation once Inauguration Day arrives?
When scrolling through my social media since the results, it’s difficult to avoid the large wave of political opinions that people are sharing. Most of them show either support or oppose a political party, while others address political nuances in both campaigns and question whether a candidate is fit for presidency. Usually, these posts are reposts of someone else’s thoughts; with one click to share, it is the easiest way to let your followers know where you stand. Although social media is an easy, accessible way to share your opinions and find a community, I wonder if it’s also a beneficial tool to communicate with people from different political beliefs, or if it is weakening our ability to have conversations about key policy issues because it is harder to listen to other perspectives online.
On my Instagram, I did a poll asking if social media has made it easier for people of opposing views to find common ground. 134 out of 168 people said that it is harder, while the rest said it was easier. It’s surprising how agreed upon it was amongst my followers that social media has made it harder to find common ground. Since information is very accessible today with all the technology we have, you would think that people would be able to find resources that could educate them on the news, politics, and basically anything. Also, educational and activism outreach is much larger with social media since we can connect with anybody around the nation and share that information. So what’s the problem? Maybe it is worth scrutinizing the way we present that information to others. On social media, connecting with people could seem more impersonal, especially when sharing activism and educational posts in comparison with talking about politics with someone in person, it is easier to connect with them. In my opinion, the problem with reposting rather than engaging is that it makes it more difficult for someone to process their own thoughts and ideas, creating a one-sided debate rather than a dialogue. More often than not, when people are scrolling through their Instagram stories they are just mindlessly tapping from one story to the next without looking at what was posted, meaning it is not enough to assume that you are contributing to the larger dialogue of the issue itself. Overall, social media is a great tool to share and find resources because of all the access there is to news and information; yet, our intentions fall short in reaching people that may disagree.
Common ground is necessary for respecting other political opinions. With common ground, it is easier to ‘agree to disagree,’ while still hearing what the other person is saying. I do not mean that you can’t challenge what the person says––it is encouraged in fact––but it is important to not do it in a way where you are attacking them because attacking won’t get either of you to the heart of the issue. For instance, I considered this concept when listening to the presidential debate rhetoric of back-and-forth arguing rather than concrete policy coverage. By letting someone get their point across, we allow for a greater opportunity to engage with their positionality.
Although it is easier to surround yourself with people that share the same political views as you, in the long run it will not help the democracy of this country. If we are not having conversations with each other about the issues in society, then it will be much more difficult to come up with solutions. We need diverse perspectives and different ways of thinking in order to address nuanced issues. With the two-party system, people are encouraged to look at things in black and white rather than seeing the grey area. When just looking at issues in black and white, there is automatically going to be clashes. For example, the issue of police brutality in the United States. Right now, it seems that people are arguing about whether or not the police force is racist, leading to a stalemate between the two groups. Looking at the black and white of the problem takes away the focus on what the real issue is. By looking at the grey area of police brutality it becomes more clear that there are decades of institutionalized racism within the foundation of the United States.
The way that I like to think about it is that everyone’s feelings are valid because each person has their own experiences and stories with certain outlooks that they took away from those. Of course, there is no excuse for being racist or any type of denier of human rights, but it’s important to not assume that they are any of the above just because of how they politically label themself (even if the label might imply desentization to certain marginalized communities). If they say or do something that inflicts harm on a group of people, then it is okay to not respect their opinion. Recently one of my friends publicly criticized the Black Lives Matter movement. Immediately, I reached out to her privately and asked her why she felt this way. She replied with the experiences of some of her family members who are police officers and how she is genuinely scared for them because of protests. Although I did not agree with her views on the movement, I still listened. By listening to her story, I was able to direct her to resources that show what the movement’s core values and the reality of police brutality being a structural issue, which expanded her previous perspective.
Overall, I think that it is possible to respect other political opinions, but it is not easy. It is important for all of us— no matter where you are on the political spectrum– to take a step back from what is happening in the United States and to connect with each other and have difficult conversations.•
