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About five years ago I attended a presentation at Bosler Memorial Library by a representative of a brand-new organization called Better Angels whose goal was to help bridge the growing political divide in America. They were already holding workshops where political “reds and blues” engaged in structured conversations designed to improve understanding and civil communication across this divide. At the time I thought this was a great idea, but a very difficult task. I still do.
In 2021, I began a personal quest to understand how this country became so divided and how so many citizens seemed to hold views so different from me and my friends. In June of 2021, I reconnected with Braver Angels (they changed their name in 2020) and participated in a workshop where eight “blues,” including me, engaged with eight “reds” in a structured workshop via Zoom.
It was a very civil affair; we shared perspectives and views on several issues. During concluding comments, I said we had shown we were excellent at civil conversation, but I felt we hadn’t accomplished much because we had avoided the “elephant in the room” questions such as those surrounding the 2020 presidential election and Jan. 6.
I said I’d like to continue one-on-one conversations with “reds” via Zoom to dig deeper into the issues that divided us. A gentleman, I’ll call him Dave, agreed, and we held monthly Zoom sessions for a year and a half, and still exchange emails. This provided for a substantial sharing of experience and views. We built a friendship and some appreciation for each other’s point of view.
Dave and I found we had much in common – both retired professionals, married and in our 70s. Dave lives in a rural area in a western state. We seem to have similar ethical/moral values and agree on several cultural issues. So, for several months, I had high hopes we could find agreement on some of those “elephant in the room” questions.
Dave’s clearly a compassionate person, quite dedicated to trying to make things better for others. He’s exceedingly patient and civil. He seems curious and eager to learn. But he staunchly supports Trump and his claims.
Over time several things became clear. While I’m a news junkie, reading extensively about local, national and international affairs, Dave’s news diet was much smaller. When I tried to pin him down on his information sources, there were few, and most of the ones he disclosed were right-leaning podcasts and emails from like-minded friends. He believes all mainstream media are biased and not to be trusted. We could virtually never find a mutually trusted information source.
He once sent me an email about the White House referring to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees and other assorted nonsense. I quickly confirmed this was a perennial hoax email, and informed Dave by email with multiple links, including one from the purported author, denying any relationship to the hoax. Dave eventually thanked me for my efforts but never really acknowledged the hoax.
Another difference surfaced when I tried to dig down to hard facts; Dave balked when it didn’t fit his biases. He questioned the existence of objective reality, saying that truth was only in the mind of the beholder. To my amazement, this included instances when I quoted Trump’s own words, and Dave claimed that Trump didn’t say what he had clearly said.
Perhaps our biggest difference when discussing disputed topics was that I asked for evidence and Dave didn’t; for example, evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Dave had no evidence and no interest in looking for any. All he needed was a belief that certain aspects of voting made it easy for fraud to occur; therefore, it must have occurred. When I pressed him on why he was so confident that fraud had actually occurred even though he didn’t have any evidence, he said it was based on his feelings.
My overall conclusion is that Dave and I live in two different information realities. We get our information from different trusted sources and there’s little overlap. We view the nature of truth and facts, and the need for evidence in making choices, in very different ways. Furthermore, these characteristics are so fundamental to our characters that it’s almost impossible to make substantial changes in how we approach finding our best available version of reality.
I certainly don’t consider Dave is a stand-in for all “reds” or all “MAGAs.” And I can’t claim that Dave is in the minority in how he deals with information and makes voting choices. I’m probably the one in the minority. But that’s a problem in today’s information environment where social media amplifies our differences as part of its business model, and numerous propaganda agents do as well, using powerful tools.
We need critical thinking more than ever, and more people willing to talk (and listen) about politics. We need to check our facts and speak out about lies and conspiracy theories. I just bought a cap captioned “Make Lying Wrong Again!” My hope is that truth and candor will make a comeback in politics.
I still believe that organizations like Braver Angels are important in mitigating the divide and encourage engaging with them.
And many thanks to Bosler Library’s excellent programming for starting me on this journey.
John Sigle
John Sigle was a professor of computer science for almost 40 years and has written more than 70 opinion pieces for four newspapers.
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John Sigle
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