The Road to Nowhere: Fighting instead of Debating

As of late, I have been watching a lot of friends in social media-- especially on Facebook-- "getting in fights" over various aspects of politics. 

Yeah, I know, that's no big surprise to anyone.

The thing that bothers me, though, is the ease with which people who have known each other and been friends for years all of a sudden are so willing to block, delete, unfriend and never speak to each other again.

And over what, exactly?

Differences of opinion. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that politics can be a volatile topic and that people often get passionate in defending their viewpoints. But what saddens me about what I am observing is the extent to which people seem unable to rise above simply "getting all stirred up" and actually pausing to look at what is truly being discussed, from an angle of understanding why, how and where the differences of opinion arose and how they exist...

... and how to move forward from there.

Which brings me to an observation I have been making for some years... which unfortunately tends to fall on mostly deaf ears, but which I nonetheless find disturbing for the human species, as a whole: 

We seem to have reached this strange point where many people feel that it is simply not "enough" for them to merely have their opinion (and the "freedom" to have aforesaid opinion), they cannot stand the idea that someone else is alive and breathing with an opinion that differs from theirs.

And hence, we and up with all these petty fights that seem to very successfully hurt feelings and ruin friendships, but do very little in terms of fostering actual understanding and somehow advancing all our lives.

It reminds me a bit of watching local politics when I lived down in Texas, many moons ago... and we'd (half) joke about politicians saying the equivalent of "Don't confuse me with the FACTS, when my mind is already made up!"

I find it disturbing that the new President of the USA (and let me underscore that this is NOT a "party political" comment, but a HUMAN comment) bears no questioning and debate of his viewpoints and opinions. 

I don't care who he is-- he could be "Uncle Fred" for all I care... any person who comes across as shut off to hearing alternative perspectives is... well, regressive. Seems like importance is placed more on "BEING right" (in an individual sense) than on whether "the right thing" (in a more global sense) is arrived at.

Of course, that's just my opinion. Maybe I have no idea what I am talking about...

What do YOU think? Does it seem like people are arguing more "to be right" than to find actual solutions these days? Are viewpoints getting more extreme... and also less open to challenge and discussion?

(As always, all text and images were created by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created for Steemit)