There are things that you believe right now that are wrong.
No one, absolutely no one has all the answers and is an expert in every topic. A lot of the beliefs we come to are through biases, incorrect information, limited experiences, confirmation bias, and the places and social strata you belong to.
We must always try to be aware of this for two reasons. One is that we must always be open to new information and allow ourselves to change our mind when a new perspective or evidence warrants it. Many people believe doubling down on your beliefs shows strength, but true strength comes from a willingness to accept you were wrong and change your mind.
Secondly, I beg you to consider how strongly you hold beliefs in regards to social justice, such as racism, ableism, sexism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and so forth. What would it take for someone to convince you the ideals you believe in are false? Think of how when you encounter opposing opinions that often anger and defensive is the first reaction. Often it is justified and often it is just a doubling down of beliefs and unwillingness to admit another side maybe has a point about one thing even if they're wrong about others.
Why is this important? Because the people you interact with are the same. They have deeply ingrained beliefs that can be impossible to shake, and you are not different. I say this to ask you to think about who you want to talk to when you encounter opposing opinions. Do you want to attempt to educate the person, then a nasty angry tone is certainly not going to get far. Do you want to play to your audience for notes? The nastier the better, and while cathartic, only strengthens the other person's beliefs. However if you try to change that person's mind, what are your honest chances?
Maybe we could help people with opposing view points to see the other side if we talk to the small, but ever present people, who aren't sure what to think and needs to see both sides of the argument. Maybe you can help that person in the audience you don't know but is always listening and reading. And you can provide arguments for people who don't know how to express their belief and support for social justice.
All we can do as humans is try to do our best to figure out what we believe is right and wrong and what we should do about certain issues. We can be right about a lot but we are also wrong about a lot too. The person who you never thought you agree with might actually have the right answers to some of our problems. It is through compromise we try to seek the best result.
We should always have an open mind, but also recognize that the person we are directly speaking to is not going to change theirs. So speak to audience, but also listen.
Because there is one final important truth. Echo chambers encourage and proliferate wrong ideas because they are never challenged. When people argue against us, we are compelled to support the premise, and if you find there is no good way to support it, you change your mind. As infuriating as a political opponents opinions can be, recognize that they provide the impetus for your side to not only argue for better social justice but provide evidence for the ideas you propose.
This is also why the banning of books or ideas is a morally and socially bankrupt. You potentially are banning correct ideas, but you are also robbing people of the ability of people to strengthen their ideas by challenging them.
Fight for your beliefs, fight for them hard. Just try to remember the human on the other end. You could be wrong, they could be right. I'm not asking you to compromise your beliefs but recognize they have the same exact fervor and strength in their beliefs and are no less easily changed than yours.
Ultimately the willingness to change your beliefs when better evidence comes along is the best way to work towards the objective truth and betterment of people.
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