When Did We Lose the Ability to Have a Conversation?

When did we lose the ability to have a conversation?  We all have opinions on different issues, but shoving people aside and disregarding them as people simply because they disagree with us is not going to help this country and this world move forward.  It's just going to break us further apart.

When I see someone post something on Facebook saying "if you disagree with (insert topic here), please defriend me", I see someone missing the point of social media and missing the point of being individuals.  We should all be allowed to have our own opinions and discuss them without threat of losing friends or being completely dismissed.  We should all also be able to hear other people with differing viewpoints discuss those viewpoints without dehumanizing them or treating them as though they are less than we are.  I certainly hold viewpoints that would cause some other people to dismiss me.  We all do, but silencing anyone who disagrees with us is not progress.

We need to relearn how to have civil conversations with people who see things differently.  We need to respect others instead of demonizing them and always assuming the worst about their intentions.  We need to see others as people who can be reasoned with, and we need to become reasonable people ourselves.  We need to consider that our viewpoints are not always perfect and that we might just learn something from someone else.  People we disagree with are conversation partners, not enemies.  They are people, not monsters.

We are not greater or less than each other; we are simply different.  God loves us all the same.