As I am sure you know, Election Day has just passed. I have to admit I am very glad. Politics are almost impossible to get away from, as are conversations about them. The weeks leading up to Election Day is a time where opinions become more important than people. Relationships between those informed and involved in politics become strained.
There are many labels placed on people of all political beliefs. These stereotypes include money-worshiping Republicans, God-hating Democrats, clueless third parties, and everything in between. These stereotypes tear acquaintances and even friendships apart.
We all know these stereotypes are incorrect, and yet we continue to use them.
The definition of stereotyping, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is, “to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” The definition of judging is, “to form an opinion about something or someone through careful weighing of evidence and testing of premises.” Unfortunately negative stereotypes have become the primary basis for judgment in our culture, especially when it comes to political beliefs. This type of blatant disrespect needs to end.
As a psychology major I understand the theories behind having the need to categorize and label people who have different views from us; however I believe there is a difference between putting people into fair categories and hating a person because they happen to post a political picture on Facebook you disagree with.
As an informed voter, I still refuse to tell people whom I vote for. I choose to keep my detailed political opinions to myself for fear of being challenged by someone who disagrees. My opinions are not going to change because someone started an argument with me. Nor am I going to debate anyone else’s political opinion because I disagree with them. People, and by extension their opinions, have more dignity than that.
I am not saying that not talking about politics is the answer. To me, not talking about politics is the best way I know how to put people before opinions. Respectful political conversations can be held, but they are in my experience quite rare.
My entire argument can be summarized by this: Society as a whole needs to stop negatively viewing people in categories of Democrats and Republicans, and we need to start viewing each other as human beings who deserve respect in our freedom of speech.
Now that we’ve identified the problem and figured out what needs to be done, we need take the steps to actually fix it. I am not ignorant enough to believe that this issue will resolve itself overnight, but I do believe we can all take giant leaps in the correct direction to make this world a little less judgmental for the next generations.
If the millennial generation is truly about acceptance, we can start by accepting each other’s political beliefs.
