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The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

The Forum

The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

The Forum

Talking About Politics: Creating a Mutual Understanding or Hatred?

Grace Ebach I’ve always loved following politics. As someone who is interested in public service as a possible career choice, I take the election of anyone, be it a judge, alderman, governor, or even the President seriously. I also love sharing my beliefs and learning about those of others— it’s great to be able to share opinions in order to create mutual understanding. However, in my experience, these peacefully and rationally-motivated conversations most often never take place in informal settings. Instead, there’s arguing and criticizing, and every single time I’ve been involved or witnessed casual political discussions, someone ends up feeling hurt, disrespected, or ganged up on. Although I’ve seen these conversations take place at Latin, they’re usually sparse, and students in this very intellectual environment usually know what they’re talking about and don’t just spew out the opinions of their parents or other political gatekeepers. That being said, I think that the way we approach talking about politics needs to change, or else we should just stop talking about politics informally altogether. I realize that there was a Presidential election recently, which was an election very important to the future of American policies as parties keep getting more and more extreme, so I understand all the political talk in the library and the halls. However, I came across five different straight-up fights regarding the election results in the last couple of weeks. I couldn’t help but stay and eavesdrop as the students said awful things about the candidates in defense of the one they supported, uttering phrases that I can’t even repeat here, they’re so insulting. Exchanges like these worry me about whether we should talk about politics—period— because even though I love being able to express my opinions, it’s not worth alienating someone and making others feel uncomfortable expressing themselves in fear of judgment or ostracism. Yet, although that’s the easy way out, I don’t think that dismissing all political debate is going to fix the problem. What we need to do is examine it, and find out why it is we go for the cheap shots. Why do we feel the need to attack a candidate’s race/gender/appearance/family and whatnot? Instead of going for the personal jabs, we need to debate policies and stances on certain topics, investigate past decisions and plans for the future, and infer ourselves who we think is the better candidate. Only then are we ready to discuss our thought processes with others and talk about politics intelligently and rationally, avoiding confrontation and hostility fueled by ignorance and bigotry. Therefore, in hopes of creating a more comfortable environment for everyone at Latin, we as the student body should continue to educate ourselves about the issues, and engage with other in hopes of creating a deeper understanding of each other’s lives. Even though we may not come to an agreement on certain issues, at least respective parties got to say their peace and do so comfortably, without fear of being attacked or made fun of for it. My distaste for one candidate is not worth a conversation gone awry with my one of my friends. Is it for you? Consider it the next time politics becomes a hot topic in our halls.]]>

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  • N

    nknoxDec 4, 2012 at 8:00 pm

    Great job Grace. Honestly, there are billions of people in the world and I don’t think there is a way to please every one of them. People have the right to be open-minded or close-minded. There is a difference between sharing you opinion and forcing it down the throats of others. Even if it is a liberal or conservative opinion. When sharing “facts” it should be remembered that every single person/opinion/situation can’t always be accounted for. Rationality and morals change from person to person.

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  • P

    pwigginDec 3, 2012 at 8:52 am

    I agree, Josh. It would certainly be great if every American citizen had a well-informed opinion on all local politicians, and that’s a goal that the U.S. should work towards, but it’s not realistic to expect that. For the most part, people just trust whatever values their family/community has, considering their opinion Truth. There’s a reason there are so many party-line voters in the “real world”. That said, we should encourage informed debate at school, but it would be foolish to try to stop the “arguing or criticizing” that you say is without merit.
    If debate ended every time someone had their feelings hurt, would anyone ever learn anything? Rational arguments can’t be offensive–that would imply that the facts offend you. Good job, Grace.

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  • J

    jmartinDec 3, 2012 at 1:32 am

    I think all people need to share their beliefs in politics. these debates, even the ones that get out of hand, do help educate people. also even though there are some ignorant, bigot hypocrites in our school, the reality is so are most of the people that are voting in sed elections and the people that we must deal with whenever we try and argue anything, so it is representative of the real world which is a rare experience to get in high school where opinions are suppressed for the most part and not shared. if an argument over stuff you are not involved in directly (at least not yet) with your friend ruins your relationship for an extended period of time then maybe you should not be friends with them. If you don’t like things getting heated than i suggest you stay away from conversations about politics. that being said i do understand where you are coming from and i though you presented a well written article with lots of good points. Good job Grace.

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Talking About Politics: Creating a Mutual Understanding or Hatred?