(October 7, 2018 at 8:04 pm)Tres Leches Wrote: People's identities are often wrapped up in their politics and so people - including me and you - often take it personally when someone disagrees.
I still mostly follow the old rule "don't discuss politics and religion in mixed company" even though those are two of my favorite topics of conversation.
And I don't argue on social media with strangers or acquaintances about politics (AF is perhaps an exception). You don't change people's minds on an issue by anonymously fighting on the web. Anyway, these days, you could be arguing with a Russian troll sitting in St. Petersburg.
-Teresa
There are times in history, where if you don't discuss politics bad things happen.
I really hate that many, even on the left fail to realize how Hitler was taken for granted until it was too late.
We are armchair quarterbacks now, having not lived then, but there was a time when he first started making noise, and many Germans sluffed him off as "whatever" and others thought he would be great for the country. It is easy to call him a monster now, but he made the same appeals to desperate people and it worked.
I think politics are extremely important, not in that anyone should expect to get a utopia no matter their position. But I do think it is not wise to always avoid those hard conversations. I don't want to live under despots or dictators, and those power mongers always prey upon desperation and sell utopias. Sometimes it is important to offend, not for the goal of ending up as brutal, but to avoid that brutality.
