America has become more polarized than virtually any of us have seen in our lifetimes. Conservatives see Democrats as being a part of an evil cabal attempting to take over the world and implement socialism and communism, while Democrats see Conservatives as being no better than Nazi Germany. There is no middle ground or compromise between those two positions. I mean, how do you get along with someone of an opposing viewpoint if this is the premise you are starting out with?
Fortunately, despite the extreme polarization that we see play out on social media, there are some signs of hope in moving forward. An example of this would be this interview with Jeremy London on The Mindy Thomas Show. During this show, Mindy, Jeff and Jeremy discuss everything from working in the entertainment industry to COVID-19 to Donald Trump to Qanon.
While there were strong disagreements throughout this episode, the beauty of these kinds of conversations is that it shows that it is possible for people on both sides of the aisle to drop their guard and have open and honest conversations about extremely polarizing topics. Then, after the conversation is over, there are no hard feelings and you go back to being friends.
If we are going to survive as a country and move forward, we are going to have to figure out how to have more of these kinds of conversations. We’ll never succeed in getting any sort of consensus if we only communicate within our own little tribes. It’s vitally important that we have open conversations with those of differing opinions.
With Cancel Culture raging, we need to take that off the table. If we disagree with each other, that doesn’t mean that the other person is a racist or our enemy. Let’s hear each other out and try to understand where the other person is coming from. Only then will we be able to be able to rationally converse with people and have an open marketplace of ideas.
To watch the full episode of The Mindy Thomas Show on Locals, click here.
