This really resonated with me. I've been dating a black democrat for three years: he's marvelous and reasonable and open to any conversation but our politics are at rather opposite ends. He's a democrat and much woker than I am; I'm a white libertarian who finds myself in much more agreement with you and Prof. McWhorter than he would be.
I've fallen much more on the side of holding my tongue on things I disagree with but I'm practicing baby steps of pushing back where I think he has something wrong. Nothing ever goes wrong in our arguments about politics - he's a grownup who can entertain ideas that differ from his own - but I have to actively fight my natural instinct to bite my tongue and suppress my disagreement. Like you said, it's not healthy.
I imagine our relationship would have been very different even ten years ago before everything became so polarized and politicized. I'm old enough to remember a time when having differences of political opinion wasn't a crisis. It really helps that both of us are off social media, so we're not hooked up to the 24-hour outrage machine and bringing that kind of negative energy to our relationship.
Thanks for sharing this, I had no idea your wife didn't share your political views and it makes me admire you all the more for navigating that space so graciously.
This really resonated with me. I've been dating a black democrat for three years: he's marvelous and reasonable and open to any conversation but our politics are at rather opposite ends. He's a democrat and much woker than I am; I'm a white libertarian who finds myself in much more agreement with you and Prof. McWhorter than he would be.
I've fallen much more on the side of holding my tongue on things I disagree with but I'm practicing baby steps of pushing back where I think he has something wrong. Nothing ever goes wrong in our arguments about politics - he's a grownup who can entertain ideas that differ from his own - but I have to actively fight my natural instinct to bite my tongue and suppress my disagreement. Like you said, it's not healthy.
I imagine our relationship would have been very different even ten years ago before everything became so polarized and politicized. I'm old enough to remember a time when having differences of political opinion wasn't a crisis. It really helps that both of us are off social media, so we're not hooked up to the 24-hour outrage machine and bringing that kind of negative energy to our relationship.
Thanks for sharing this, I had no idea your wife didn't share your political views and it makes me admire you all the more for navigating that space so graciously.