The word “politics” is defined as the process of making decisions about how society is organized, governed, and managed.
How did something involving so many perspectives become a conversation where we’re expected to chose just one?
Politics.
It’s a hot topic right now (reasonably so).
I’m sure if you know me personally you may begin to read this and think… wwwhhhhatttt???? why is SHE talking about POLITICS?????
yeah you might be shocked but im not.
I don’t like talking about politics for many reasons but this blog is going to focus on one of those reasons. Labels.
The second someone breathes a word about what political party they are, suddenly that label gets put into every. single. action. they. do. “Oh shes republican so..” “She is so far left so…” If someone says they are republican then suddenly they agree with every single word that has left trumps mouth. If someone is an independent voter then they must know nothing at all. If someone is a democrat then they can’t agree with anything from another party. These are real statements I have heard in conversation.
Like screw that!
And here’s what I find particularly interesting. We spend so much time trying to understand people, but sometimes I think we’re more interested in “figuring out” people than actually getting to know them.
We want to know what side they’re on. What they believe. And once we think we’ve figured it out, we start interpreting everything else about them through that lens.
People are not political parties. They’re not personality types, diagnoses, or a neatly packaged set of beliefs. Peoples political affiliations can change! People grow! New things happen! The way people view the world can change!
You can be one thing and another. You can believe in something today and challenge that belief tomorrow. You can hold two contradictory thoughts and still be a perfectly reasonable human being.
Let people be complicated.
Cast your vote on this: If the only conversations you’re willing to have are with people who already agree with you, are you actually having conversations or just looking for confirmation?
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