Great point. I agree. For context: I grew up Mormon, which I consider "cult-lite mainstream" on the cult<->religion spectrum. Having gone through that and left

Great point. I agree. For context: I grew up Mormon, which I consider "cult-lite mainstream" on the cult<->religion spectrum. Having gone through that and left the church, I've spent some time deconstructing what influenced me to think the way I did as a believing member. The best advice I can give is (a) make friends with people who are inside information bubbles [1], (b) people are motivated primarily by feelings and needs [2] despite what they say, (c) people often cover what they're really feeling with political, philosophical, and ideological language, which is often very difficult to decrypt to outsiders, and leads to significant misunderstandings, which usually serves to further separate and prevent friendship from happening, which is what's needed in the first place. [1] see Daryl Davis (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-man-daryl-davis-befriends-kkk-documentary-accidental-courtesy_n_585c250de4b0de3a08f495fc https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-man-daryl-davis-befrien...) [2] see Nonviolent Communication, a book that I place in the "top 3" most influential books in my life (https://amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language-Life-Changing-Relationships/dp/189200528X https://amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language-Life-Ch...)