When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with it becomes a lot easier to commit violence.
This is why I am so adamant about going outside and befriending people who don't vote like you. It is the only way to stop political violence. It is the only way to heal the country.
It is easy for some on the left to think of us all as extremist bigots who deserve to be treated with violence. It's easy because they don't know any of us. They live in bubbles where Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to 1. They don't see us on tv except for politicians and carefully selected clips that make the person in them look as bad as possible. They never see anything of us outside of political contexts It's easy to think that's all we are when they never see anything else.
And when you genuinely don't know otherwise, it becomes very easy for someone to convince you that these 'others' are so evil, they cannot be reasoned with, that they must be met with violence.
It's a lot harder when you know the person they're talking about, when you know that they're maybe not always right but they mean well and they treat others with kindness. Why would you want to hurt someone you know? You'd never laugh if someone else hurt them.
That's what's missing from all this. And when we retreat further into our own bubbles and prepare for some kind of war, we only make it worse.
You really want to fight back? Make it impossible for them to deny your humanity. Put a human face on the word 'conservative.' Make that connection.
You don't want do it on my say-so? Fine. Then do it because those are Charlie Kirk's words at the top of this post.
It's the same here in the UK.
There's no one, not even those closest to me with whom I agree 100%
And that's not a problem.
I can do my best to show people that if we disagree, I'm going to respect their right to a different viewpoint.
I'm merely going to ask for the same consideration in return.
There will be some things on which we're not going to reach any agreement. You think your way, I think my way.
But surely if we can at least show one another that our beliefs come with good intentions, then we can respect that, if nothing else.
