4 ms·
I'm a weirdo: I like understanding people I disagree with. Probably because of my upbringing - political and ideological agreement was never necessary for care
by Mezzie 3y ago
I'm a weirdo: I like understanding people I disagree with. Probably because of my upbringing - political and ideological agreement was never necessary for care how I was raised. (I remember pretty vividly when we had a mock presidential election in 3rd grade and my parents each pitched different candidates to me lol).
I find that usually there's a first principle or a blatantly subjective and unresolvable disagreement that's behind most political disagreements. For example, my father is way more pessimistic about human nature than I am and that shows up in a lot of his political views that I disagree with because he's starting from different first principles than I am. There's not an objective answer to 'are humans innately good or bad?' that I can point to in order to sway him. Where I've been successful in swaying others, it's been through understanding how their principles and values/value rankings differ from mine and pitching my solutions/beliefs in a way that works with others' principles rather than insults them.
Besides that, it also helps make my own belief system more robust. If you know something that indicates that what I believe is false, I want to know. I want to grow as a person and refine my understanding of the world until my last breath, not stop at 18 because 'we've figured it out!' Which is more and more driving me out of spaces I used to enjoy: There's a pervasive pressure to continue acting and speaking in an adolescent fashion. A culture that tries to keep me from growing is not healthy, no matter what its ideologies are.
I just like learning things and genuinely like talking to a bunch of different people. The more different from me, the better. I would love to talk to a member of the Taliban, for example. I'm not going to agree with anything, but damn that would be a fascinating conversation to have.