One of the hardest things I’ve found to do is having honest, open dialogs about subjects that people generally have strong opinions on.
Specific topics that come to my mind off the top of my head are racism and obesity. People often have very strong opinions on these things, so it’s hard to have a conversation with someone to understand it better because if you aren’t in full agreement with what they say, you can often seem like an opposer to them.
I’ve found that even when I’m genuinely trying to learn about something and asking questions, people can take offense to that and start attacking me as if I was attacking them. I often don’t know if this is because I asked my questions in a way that was misleading and felt like an attack or if it’s because people are so not used to people asking questions to learn.
So many people ask questions simply so they can be asked in reverse and can give their answer.
I think if we could strip down everyone’s ego and desire to be right and heard, and simply have conversations asking what other people thought and where they were coming from, we could learn so much together.
In a world with so much miscommunication, be the person that listens instead of talks. Then when you are asked, don’t hold anything back.