The Controversy of Political Discussion

Everyone always looks forward to Thanksgiving: a holiday filled with cultural appropriation, the whitewashing of history, heated political debates, and a grand turkey feast!

Though heated political debates seemingly happen more frequently than the others outside of this splendid holiday.

Bringing up politics is probably one of the fastest ways to ruin dinner, as most people might already know. But why is this? Why are politics one of the most controversial topics one can discuss?

I believe the discussion of politics shouldn’t be controversial.

I’ve found that most often these political debates amongst family or friends occur when forced together at the dinner table, which only occurs on days like Thanksgiving for most families. Though for some families, like my own, family dinners happen daily, and I’m quite notorious for ‘ruining’ these dinners. However, I’ve noticed dinner is only ‘ruined’ when opposing political ideologies are brought up. The rest of my family gets to indulge in political conversation because they all agree on the majority of their views. Though, when other views are proposed, they get defensive and irate.

The disreputable political debate at the dinner table situation has become so infamous because of its unique qualities of forcing people to actually talk through a disagreement, which most people don’t know how to do. Typically, when my dad disagrees with what I’m saying, he walks away or ends the conversation by turning up the car radio to drain out my ‘radical leftist views’. Though, these options aren’t available to my dad at the dinner table. So people in this position often resort to raised voices and short tempers.

This isn’t to throw my dad under the bus in any means, as he reacts to political debate just as everyone else in the United States does. In fact, even our politicians can’t seem to debate respectfully without becoming wildly immature and disrespectful.

The controversiality of politics is a vicious cycle where no one talks about politics, so they become controversial, and because they are controversial, no one talks about them. This has led to politics’ increasing polarization.

Now that I’ve established what most of humanity knows: politics are controversial, I can get to why I believe they shouldn’t be.

When we label the topics of politics as an untouchable beast that shouldn’t be discussed, it hinders communication which is the only way for solutions to be devised in the world of politics. It also creates a feeling of discomfort and unnaturality when conversing with those who don’t share the same views. We collectively bottle up our opinions and let them set in stone instead of exposing ourselves to opposing beliefs. Because of this lack of exposure, when we are met with conflicting beliefs, we tend to hide in our bottles and refuse to see outside of them. Therefore when forced to discuss these ideologies with others, it becomes nearly impossible to do anything yet get angry, resistive, and stubborn.

This complication is often seen in the process of passing legislation. For most of the problems in the nation, there’s multiple solutions to try. However, we spend so much time angrily arguing over which one to choose without any consideration for other people’s views that we often end up choosing none at all and urgent problems go unsolved.

This along with the obvious crack in our country’s unity being deepened with every election and year we adhere to this unspoken rule to not speak of political ideologies displays the destructive consequences of associating politics with controversy.

To combat this pressing issue within our country, try discussing politics with those you might not agree with, even if they have radically different views. It’s important to try and find the common problem and understand another’s perspective on why they think the way they do. If for nothing else, then to maybe prevent the inevitable second civil war.

Discussing politics shouldn’t be anywhere near as difficult, awkward, or problematic and the discussion of politics shouldn’t be seen as controversial. This I believe.