When a person is talking about politics from any place on the political spectrum, I listen without ever getting angry. There’s no point and that’s because it’s just one person talking. I see a person talking about politics as extremely statistically insignificant. The person I’m listening to is not big enough to be correct, nor big enough to be incorrect. They are only big enough to have a way of looking at things.
This is all because I had to point a finger at myself first. I did the math. There are 330 Million (331.9 M on my last Google search, but I rounded it down) people in the United States of America. Of course, if you live in another country, use your country’s population. Now, divide one into the population. In America, my political opinion by population is 0.000000003. That’s three billionths of a percentage! I’m a lot closer to being nothing than something. Now that I’ve pointed my finger at myself, I can point one at others. Every single person now has this tiny fraction assigned to them.
Information person-to-person is staggeringly different
Since I view myself and everybody else by this number now, I’m always wondering what the next perspective, opinion, insight, angle, approach, variable, or personal experience there is. I am always asking this when people are talking about politics. Because when you do go to a different person and see what they have on the topic, oftentimes more than not, it’s vastly different or there are new perspectives mentioned that could build off of previous ones. Keep in mind that the field of politics is now so insanely massive, years’ worth of information come out in one day. It’s only inevitable people pick out different pieces.
Switching to building a knowledge base
Instead of arguing these perspectives, I now collect them. I want as many ways to look at a topic as I can get and store it. Give me 10, 20, or a thousand and I still won’t stop. The very minute I stop is because I think I’m right, but I’ll never be and I don’t want to try. Since my focus is now on the next thing and then the next, and so on, I find that building a knowledge base is a lot more beneficial than if I were to adhere to a political party, ideology, group, organization, or label. That stuff will just piss me off and make me hate people, which I have no reason to do.
I only recognize the name of a person, then I move on to the next name. Because a person’s name is the most important label there is. It’s just too bad a lot of people out there can’t fit into their own, but rather, fit into something they never were responsible for creating in the first place.
Try it!
The next time someone is talking politics, don’t argue with them. Shrink them! Shrink them into this mathematical insignificance that we just covered. Maybe even put out a statement when they are done with their point. “That’s one way of looking at that, but what do you think the next one will be?” If they ask what that means, tell them “Because there are (population of people in your country) and you and I are only one. What’s the next person going to think that both you and I haven’t met yet and cannot speak for? What will they have?”
Let me know if this works. If they ask further questions, direct them to this website. I’ll take it from there.