so hi everyone so recently I spoke to a
house rep about her thoughts on the
really evident current social and
political status of polarization because
you know obviously as a legislator you
want a bipartisan effort to get you know
more bills passed so I asked about her
thoughts on that and she told me she
thought it was something natural that it
was a pattern that you know you could
see depending on the election cycle and
who was in power and that it kind of
abdun flowed now this might come as a
surprise to you but believe it or not a
politician was wrong so actually
according to Pew Research the average
partisan gap has gone from fifteen to
thirty six percentage points since
nineteen ninety four that it’s over
doubled so you know that number might
not mean a lot to you right now but you
have to acknowledge that while a divided
opinion is not a weird concept you know
there’s usually two sides to an argument
what is concerning is the fact that as
an American public during just the Obama
administration we had reached record
highs for how polarized we were and just
in the past year or two we’ve surpassed
those levels significantly so you know
there can be a lot of cases made for why
we’ve become so polarized and divided
but today I’m going to tell you about a
few reasons I’ve seen as prominent that
contribute to this and why the culture
surrounding it is so detrimental and
toxic to our ability to progress as a
society so in the past year in the past
you know administration it’s become
evident how divided people are of you
know a different political affiliation
it’s undeniable and especially with the
rise of Technology and social media and
communication people are able to hide
behind a mask and express their opinion
rather aggressively to say the least you
know things like you shouldn’t be alive
because you have this opinion is not
uncommon to see online and even hear in
conversations nowadays so yeah you know
typically a political conversation would
follow the ideal format that you know
one side gives their opinion in their
logic behind it that’s same with the
other side and then they kind of battle
it out they poke holes in each other’s
argument and eventually either come
to a consensus that one side is more
feasible or you know figure out a middle
ground resolution that addresses some of
both of their needs and concerns but
like I said the argument now has become
super ad hominem it’s like more I’m
gonna attack your side because I don’t
think I like what you’re gonna have to
say I don’t care if I don’t get my point
across I just don’t want you to be able
to say anything and that kind of
attitude has turned so many people off
from talking politics even more than
usual which is saying a lot so you know
a lot of you may laugh because you’ve
encountered something like that or seen
something like that unfortunately and so
of a lot of it they’re people you know
it’s not you know everyone’s probably
gone through that at some point and what
happens is so many people shy away from
having any political conversation at all
because you know they want to avoid that
conflict that there becomes this large
gap there’s a lack of communication and
conversation other than those few people
I you know previously talking about that
kind of fruitlessly yell at each other
you know so other than that there’s no
talk happening and what happens is you
run the risk of having a lot of
ignorance and apathy because no one’s
talking so then you know we ignore the
issues that we face and in the end it’s
just a you know a lack of necessary
conversation so you know I don’t
personally believe that people are
inherently evil because they have a
certain political view I my kind of
thinking is that people have different
priorities and values in life and you
know that we come to opinions because
you know different opinions because of
that and so you know of course there’s
gonna be disagreement but running away
from conflict is so problematic because
we just create this gap you know the
logic is that I’m going to run away from
this conversation because I want to
avoid conflict but then the gap that’s
created just feeds more into that and
the conflict becomes greater and greater
so it’s really it’s really
counterproductive if you think of it
another kind of to go deeper another
subset of this is the concept of
controversy so you know people again
they tried to avoid conflict they don’t
talk another reason a lot of people give
is you know they go
want to be touchy I don’t want to be
controversial but if you think about it
a lot of the issues we’ve collectively
deemed as controversial could regardless
of the views you hold they could have
really adverse potential outcomes if
they’re not addressed regardless so what
happens is we again run away and these
issues still exist you know if you think
about it again a lot of people are in
the same boat you know they they
disagree but they also fear sharing
their opinion so if we acknowledge that
it shouldn’t be as hard to begin to how
those conversations I’ve seen people of
all demographics of all ages talk about
issues they’re passionate about and more
often than not they’re actually able to
come to some sort of consensus it’s not
something weird and unattainable it’s
definitely possible and we’re all
probably fully capable of that so what
happens is again when you create this
gap with this lack of conversation what
happens is you allow for this ignorance
is bliss kind of mentality to get really
large and in the end the issue you’re
avoiding will still never solve you know
just because we turn a blind eye doesn’t
mean it goes away politics you know if
they don’t directly affect you if it’s
an issue that doesn’t directly affect
you it can still affect your community
point being no one’s no one’s
untouchable
my politics so you know these issues are
still never solved we just ignored them
and in the background they just grow
larger and larger and they’re you know
nothing ever happens because we refrain
from having this conversation so you
know after this talk I’m not gonna
pretend you can all go out and talk to
anyone about everything and have no
problems I get that that’s not how it
works I get that it’s a multi-faceted
issue that’s you know arguably rooted
into our culture I get that but I will
also acknowledge that we can all see it
as a problem and that we it’s you know
it’s not something super profound the
the basic thing is we all have opinions
political opinions and we don’t talk
about them because we fear negative
repercussion but by recognizing that a
lot of people are in the same boat as us
we can slowly ease into
being able to have conversations whether
they be about controversial matters or
not so as as people who will be affected
by this every day what what I encourage
you to do is to normalize these
conversations as constituents as
educators as you know citizens civilians
we have to normalize these conversations
we shouldn’t you know don’t let politics
be something that people fear once a
year at a holiday dinner with their
in-laws let it be something normal you
know we need to talk about it we need to
teach our youth to talk about it because
it’s it’s not something that should be
you know we shouldn’t feed into the
stigma that it’s just something we can’t
talk about because it’s always there we
can’t escape it we’re just scared of it
because it it is something big there are
a lot of big issues and I get that and
we’re scared of them but you know again
there’s always that kind of idea we
teach kids like you shouldn’t run away
from your fears you know so it’s it’s
kind of like that so I encourage you to
again normalize these conversations and
don’t let politics just be this dirty
word go out and don’t fear conflict and
disagreement embrace it thank you [Applause]
house rep about her thoughts on the
really evident current social and
political status of polarization because
you know obviously as a legislator you
want a bipartisan effort to get you know
more bills passed so I asked about her
thoughts on that and she told me she
thought it was something natural that it
was a pattern that you know you could
see depending on the election cycle and
who was in power and that it kind of
abdun flowed now this might come as a
surprise to you but believe it or not a
politician was wrong so actually
according to Pew Research the average
partisan gap has gone from fifteen to
thirty six percentage points since
nineteen ninety four that it’s over
doubled so you know that number might
not mean a lot to you right now but you
have to acknowledge that while a divided
opinion is not a weird concept you know
there’s usually two sides to an argument
what is concerning is the fact that as
an American public during just the Obama
administration we had reached record
highs for how polarized we were and just
in the past year or two we’ve surpassed
those levels significantly so you know
there can be a lot of cases made for why
we’ve become so polarized and divided
but today I’m going to tell you about a
few reasons I’ve seen as prominent that
contribute to this and why the culture
surrounding it is so detrimental and
toxic to our ability to progress as a
society so in the past year in the past
you know administration it’s become
evident how divided people are of you
know a different political affiliation
it’s undeniable and especially with the
rise of Technology and social media and
communication people are able to hide
behind a mask and express their opinion
rather aggressively to say the least you
know things like you shouldn’t be alive
because you have this opinion is not
uncommon to see online and even hear in
conversations nowadays so yeah you know
typically a political conversation would
follow the ideal format that you know
one side gives their opinion in their
logic behind it that’s same with the
other side and then they kind of battle
it out they poke holes in each other’s
argument and eventually either come
to a consensus that one side is more
feasible or you know figure out a middle
ground resolution that addresses some of
both of their needs and concerns but
like I said the argument now has become
super ad hominem it’s like more I’m
gonna attack your side because I don’t
think I like what you’re gonna have to
say I don’t care if I don’t get my point
across I just don’t want you to be able
to say anything and that kind of
attitude has turned so many people off
from talking politics even more than
usual which is saying a lot so you know
a lot of you may laugh because you’ve
encountered something like that or seen
something like that unfortunately and so
of a lot of it they’re people you know
it’s not you know everyone’s probably
gone through that at some point and what
happens is so many people shy away from
having any political conversation at all
because you know they want to avoid that
conflict that there becomes this large
gap there’s a lack of communication and
conversation other than those few people
I you know previously talking about that
kind of fruitlessly yell at each other
you know so other than that there’s no
talk happening and what happens is you
run the risk of having a lot of
ignorance and apathy because no one’s
talking so then you know we ignore the
issues that we face and in the end it’s
just a you know a lack of necessary
conversation so you know I don’t
personally believe that people are
inherently evil because they have a
certain political view I my kind of
thinking is that people have different
priorities and values in life and you
know that we come to opinions because
you know different opinions because of
that and so you know of course there’s
gonna be disagreement but running away
from conflict is so problematic because
we just create this gap you know the
logic is that I’m going to run away from
this conversation because I want to
avoid conflict but then the gap that’s
created just feeds more into that and
the conflict becomes greater and greater
so it’s really it’s really
counterproductive if you think of it
another kind of to go deeper another
subset of this is the concept of
controversy so you know people again
they tried to avoid conflict they don’t
talk another reason a lot of people give
is you know they go
want to be touchy I don’t want to be
controversial but if you think about it
a lot of the issues we’ve collectively
deemed as controversial could regardless
of the views you hold they could have
really adverse potential outcomes if
they’re not addressed regardless so what
happens is we again run away and these
issues still exist you know if you think
about it again a lot of people are in
the same boat you know they they
disagree but they also fear sharing
their opinion so if we acknowledge that
it shouldn’t be as hard to begin to how
those conversations I’ve seen people of
all demographics of all ages talk about
issues they’re passionate about and more
often than not they’re actually able to
come to some sort of consensus it’s not
something weird and unattainable it’s
definitely possible and we’re all
probably fully capable of that so what
happens is again when you create this
gap with this lack of conversation what
happens is you allow for this ignorance
is bliss kind of mentality to get really
large and in the end the issue you’re
avoiding will still never solve you know
just because we turn a blind eye doesn’t
mean it goes away politics you know if
they don’t directly affect you if it’s
an issue that doesn’t directly affect
you it can still affect your community
point being no one’s no one’s
untouchable
my politics so you know these issues are
still never solved we just ignored them
and in the background they just grow
larger and larger and they’re you know
nothing ever happens because we refrain
from having this conversation so you
know after this talk I’m not gonna
pretend you can all go out and talk to
anyone about everything and have no
problems I get that that’s not how it
works I get that it’s a multi-faceted
issue that’s you know arguably rooted
into our culture I get that but I will
also acknowledge that we can all see it
as a problem and that we it’s you know
it’s not something super profound the
the basic thing is we all have opinions
political opinions and we don’t talk
about them because we fear negative
repercussion but by recognizing that a
lot of people are in the same boat as us
we can slowly ease into
being able to have conversations whether
they be about controversial matters or
not so as as people who will be affected
by this every day what what I encourage
you to do is to normalize these
conversations as constituents as
educators as you know citizens civilians
we have to normalize these conversations
we shouldn’t you know don’t let politics
be something that people fear once a
year at a holiday dinner with their
in-laws let it be something normal you
know we need to talk about it we need to
teach our youth to talk about it because
it’s it’s not something that should be
you know we shouldn’t feed into the
stigma that it’s just something we can’t
talk about because it’s always there we
can’t escape it we’re just scared of it
because it it is something big there are
a lot of big issues and I get that and
we’re scared of them but you know again
there’s always that kind of idea we
teach kids like you shouldn’t run away
from your fears you know so it’s it’s
kind of like that so I encourage you to
again normalize these conversations and
don’t let politics just be this dirty
word go out and don’t fear conflict and
disagreement embrace it thank you [Applause]
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