The other day, I was talking to my boyfriend and tried to ask him some political questions concerning things that were happening in the news and topics I had been discussing with friend. He was very reluctant to discuss with me any political ideas because of previous experiences that he has undergone in the past. His beliefs differ from those within his family and political discussions quickly turn toxic. But this is not an unheard-of experience.
Being at Penn State with 40,000 people, we are bound to run into and be friends with people across a wide array of backgrounds, experiences, and political beliefs. From staunch conservatives to extreme leftists, I am happy to say that Penn State does not lack political diversity. Although college campuses tend to be more liberal in nature, I have seen plenty of people posted up in the hub displaying conservative ideals and organizations that support the republican party. Even with all of this diversity and a wide array of beliefs, that does not seem to correlate with the number of conversations are happening between people with opposing viewpoints. People seem to be reluctant to discuss their beliefs unless they are surrounded by those with likeminded ideals. I remember freshmen year I was really interested in who my friends were going to vote for. One of my friends was a republican and I definitely swing more left, but I am a registered independent because I think party systems are kind of stupid. (I feel as though when people vote they should vote for people who have similar ideals to them and have ideas that they think are good, not just vote blindly for a party). It took a while to convince her to talk to me, but I was really intrigued by her plan to vote for Trump and wanted to hear more about it. After I finally convinced her we sat in the hub and discussed who we were planning on voting for and why. I loved being able to see her perspective and hear more about how her military upbringing and more secluded lifestyle that included hunting and owning guns for protection influenced her decision. Her basic ideals about how she wanted to live her life were more important to her than the bombastic actions that Trump was displaying at the time leading up to the election. She agreed that he was a misogynist and inappropriate, but she was able to look past those things because his political agenda matched hers more than Hilary. Although I could not have looked past those things for my own voting experience, we were able to discuss our beliefs and it was really cool to hear about the other side.
Just like that experience with my friend, it was hard to get my boyfriend to open up due a variety of bad experiences in the past when trying to converse with people who have opposing viewpoints. My friend had been screamed at and harasses by her friends for having this particular belief and my boyfriend felt as though it was not worth the hassle to discuss political views. Anthony (my boyfriend) tends to have more conservative views than me due to his background in business and belief in the free market. It is really fun to discuss social topics with him with relationship to healthcare, the economy, taxes and much more. I am in Soc 451 and in this class, we discuss how education, neighborhood, race, and family wealth has huge impacts on lifelong health. Although the articles and beliefs are based on data it is fun to debate new policies with him.
But sadly, these types of open debates are rare. I am very lucky to have close supportive friends who are willing to open up to me and explain their thought process to me even though we may vote for different people and have different frames of mind than I do. I believe it is so important to debate and discuss different points of view. I definitely am not as involved in politics as I should be, but these conversations allow me to broaden my perspective of a variety of topics and allow me to be a better citizen and be a better friend. It doesn’t help anyone to be stuck in your beliefs. By always trying and attempting to keep an open mind, I have been able to grow as a citizen of the United States and I think it would fare everyone well to have more discussions with people with different ideals than they have.
Hi Sam,
Thanks for bringing this up, as you said, it can be very hard to do! I also am registered independent and find it interesting to hear perspectives from my friends on both sides of the isle. But like your boyfriend, I’ve also had hard experiences previously that tend to prevent me from speaking up. I was much more conservative in high school based on my upbringing and area I lived in, and in my AP Gov class I was harassed and bullied for my views. Multiple days on end I’d end up in my favorite teacher’s classroom crying in the afternoon because of the way people made me feel in invalidating my beliefs. Because of the trauma from these experiences, I don’t like to engage in political discussions much out of fear that the same thing will happen. There have been very few people in my life that I can trust enough to have civil, important conversations with, even to this day as many of my views have changed and I lean more left. This past summer in my internship however, even registering independent was seen as ridiculous by some of my co-interns from Stanford and UC Berkley, who’ve grown up in California and in very liberal areas; they had no ida what it was like to grow up in a conservative area. I was able to have some great conversations with one of them, but the other was continuously malicious and created challenges when working in small groups together. It really made me think about our broader society’s operations and where we’re hurting in the inability to look past someone’s differences and just have a conversation with them like any other human being.
Sam,
I agree with you 100%! People are scared of discussing their beliefs to avoid conflict, but this is the very reason why it is hard to understand other views. Without discussions and looking at issues from all angles, how are we supposed to come to the best decision for everyone? I also agree that everyone should be educated in their political opinions, because voting is a privilege that most people do not get to practice.
Great post!
Katelyn