If you want to learn and truly be informed, go find the opposite opinion to yours and listen. Ask questions. Allow yourself to be moved by intellectual arguments if there are reasons to be swayed.
By listening to alternative views you can understand the topic better. Listening and reflecting on only one side leaves you exposed and looking poorly informed, at best.
Learning how to assess information without your emotions and bias overtaking you, is a rare and useful skill.
Some folks are so interested in winning the argument, they’re not that interested in the facts or context surrounding it.
If you want better understanding, more than having your view get more votes, then go and engage with people holding the opposite view to you. It may not change your mind but you’ll better understand the complexities of the situation.
You’ll also become a better person and have less divisive conversations. So no need to wait for others to be less difficult in conversations. You can lead the way and be more balanced from the start.
If you’re agreeing with your news media’s angle all or most of the time, go find someone or a media that states the opposite. Yes, it will make you uncomfortable. But you’ll find out what nearly half the country think.
This will give you insight most others will never know. If you nod knowingly to your media all the time, it just means you enjoy your bias. That makes you half as wise as you could be.
