system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The old adage "Do not discuss politics" has contributed to the current US political divide.

I want to begin by stating that I understand why the adage exists. At face value it's good advice, and helps avoid social interactions becoming heated. This rule is occasionally broken, but it's often on the assumption that the person you're speaking with already agrees with you, and when it becomes clear that this isn't the case the rule gets reinstated.

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Lately though, I've started to think we've been shooting ourselves in the foot with those good intentions. We'll often decry the political echo-chambers of the internet, while ignoring that we've effectively chosen to live in one IRL. By choosing to be polite and avoid uncomfortable dialogue with people we know, we've handed the reigns over to the loudest (and often most extreme) members of either side of the spectrum and these people then become the face of their ideology to the opposition.

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I've been told with a straight face that all liberals want to abort babies to the point where none are born in the US.

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I've been told with a straight face that all conservatives are nazis who want the US to be a white ethnostate.

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It was hard for me to believe that either of the caricatures these folks described were based on real life interactions they'd had. Indeed, both openly acknowledged that they'd never actually met a person that fit their description, but both were ALSO thoroughly convinced that these were accurate representations of their political rivals regardless. It seems to me like these caricatures thrive because we aren't exposing ourselves to the views of average conservatives/liberals. Normal people are choosing not to engage in the discussion, and only the hyperbole remains.

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I believe this is also why simply asking a question about someones views is often treated as an attack. It's a difficult thing to separate your sense of self from your beliefs, but I think our attempts to avoid social discomfort have weakened our collective ability to do so. Without listening to outside viewpoints we limit our own ability for critical self-reflection, and as a result a clarifying question gets misconstrued as an invitation to an argument.

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I think that, if we want to bridge the divide between political parties, we need to get out of our comfort zones and start actively talking to each other about politics again. We need to engage with each other openly and honestly, not to prove how right our chosen position is but to foster a better understanding of how someone might have arrived at a different conclusion than we have. We need to stop assuming we know each others motivations, and actually listen to each other instead. As long as we avoid real conversations with our fellow countrymen the caricatures will continue to rule the discourse.

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Change my view.
gpt
It's not the "Do not discuss politics" that got us here, because people are more than happy to discuss politics openly with anyone who agrees with them.  If everyone actually applied this "rule" universally, and kept quiet about it EVEN in the company of those that agreed, then you wouldn't have the echo-chamber, because there would be no sound to echo. You wouldn't have people reinforcing their misguided beliefs to each other, giving each other more ammunition to hate the other side, any of that, because you'd just...shut up.  You'd form your own opinions based on your own knowledge and experience, and you wouldn't even KNOW if the other person agreed with you.