It’s 8 pm on a Sunday. Your parents’ friends from Texas are visiting. Somehow, politics works its way into the discussion. Instead of arguing or changing the topic, your parents are listening to their friends and considering what they say, even though they would usually ignore the same opinions if they came from anyone else.

Unfortunately, this situation is very uncommon. My parents’ friends from Texas have visited, but instead of having an insightful discussion of politics, the topic is avoided like the plague.

Nowadays, overly polarized views are all too common and there are less and less people who would consider themselves as open to new ideas. This hyper polarization has led to more arguing and less debate about politics, meaning more people are closed off to new ideas and views. However, many of the arguments presented against opposing views are flawed and full of holes. 

In order for people to be good at representing their ideals and position, they have to know and understand what those with opposing ideals think. Especially since people are so strongly set in their ways. 

Arguments in politics occur because people want to change each other’s minds. They believe that their side is the only valid side and all others are wrong, so they fight to force their ideals onto others. In reality, mature debate and discourse are the key to changing people’s minds, but in order to do that, you have to listen and understand what others are going to say. 

However, most people don’t understand this as society does not encourage people to broaden their perspectives and seek new information. Systems like social media algorithms keep us contained in views and ideas we already believe, lessening the amount of new information we receive. 

Learning about various viewpoints is a very important part of developing your own views, but making the choice to be open to new ideas is very hard for the people so set in their ideas. People need to take the initiative in their own lives to reach out and broaden their perspectives. 

However, most people aren’t going to make the choice to expand their views. For many, they have to go out of the way to do that, and most are too set in their routines to take that step.

Unfortunately, too many people feel that views different to their own are automatically wrong. We need to change our culture that focuses on shutting out others’ ideas into one where we listen to others. If we can take that step, we can create a society focused on learning and growing rather than being right.