Want to be politically relevant without alienating your friends and colleagues? Hey, most of us do.
Here are 10 tips to helping you become better at taking an ideological stance:
1. If a liberal/conservative doesn’t take you seriously, don’t take that seriously.
2. If a liberal/conservative points out something about your base that is negative, but true, address it and move on. Don’t act like you’re line of thinking is full of perfect people.
3. You don’t have to agree with everything your “party” agrees with. That justt means that you actually think for yourself and are still willing to make a stance.
4. If someone asks you a question that you don’t know, say, “I don’t know.”
5. Research when someone asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to.
6. Digest news that is skewed towards the other perspective.
7. If you read something that affirms your viewpoint very strongly, get the other side of the story before sharing it.
8. If you feel very strongly about something politically, do something about it instead of arguing with people online.
9. If someone is a liberal, don’t automatically assume they want socialism and class warfare. If someone is a conservative, don’t automatically assume they hate poor people and women.
10. Ask more questions than you answer.
JN
Oh and one more. Don’t refer to a political enemy with a name that makes fun of them, such as “Obummer”, or “Mittens.” It kind of makes you seem extremely unpleasant.