At this rose cafe, we were lucky enough to welcome Peter Enns, an expert on government. During this more conversational rose cafe, one student brought up the importance of communicating with people who don’t necessarily hold our political beliefs. I find this kind of sentiment very important, especially considering the divided nature of our country today. As a result, I have tried to browser multiple forums and talk to people I know who support Donald Trump, in addition to view what people are saying about various issues and new articles around the country. When I do this, I find that though we are discussing the same things, we tend to have completely different sources and realities. While I try to be unemotional and level-headed when discussing these topics, I find it hard at times. For example, upon asking one of my friends how she feels about Trump’s lack of concern over the changing climate, she stated that she was unconcerned, as humans are a warm weather species. As you can imagine, this was very hard to respond to in a respectful way.

Basically, while I identify with the sentiment of trying to communicate with people who are “outside” of your echo chamber, it is incredibly difficult to achieve this when you and the other person have two extremely different realities. I can respect peoples differing views on how government funds should be spent, level of executive reach, etc. but I find it hard to respect others which have no basis in scientific reality. Nor do I think that their views should be respected.