OPINION

Why It’s Impossible To Engage With Conservatives

Reason only works when your opponents value facts; conservatives don’t

6 min read

Just now

Engaging with people we disagree with is an inevitability when it comes to politics. In almost every political discussion, there are going to be people who hold a different view from you. Be it on economic issues, trade, LGBT rights, whatever the case may be, there are always going to be people, even those on the same side of the aisle as you, who think differently.

When it comes to people who are diametrically opposed to everything you believe, say, people on the left versus conservatives, things start to get a bit murky. These groups fundamentally don’t agree on how the world should work. It’s one of the reasons political discourse so often becomes hostile or violent.

A lot of attention has been given to the level of political violence in the US in recent times, and it is something that must be discussed.

At the same time, there is a major problem we rarely see brought up: conservatives are people who you genuinely cannot engage with in any meaningful way. I don’t mean simply anyone who doesn’t agree with progressive views on a topic or anything like that, or even necessarily people who vote for any right-wing party. I’m talking…