Politics

I've allowed myself to be afraid to assert my (fairly conservative) world view when it's been attacked on social media. I thought it was bad *before* the election...

Fear is a result of many different factors. There's fear of the unknown. There's fear of duplicating/re-living unpleasant experiences. In some of those cases,  the expectation needs to be examined and reevaluated; and we discover that we were conditioned to expect the same kind of response but the expectation wasn't a valid one. In other cases, the expectation is appropriate. For example, it's realistic to expect to be attacked for expressing/defending a conservative world view. I've responded to/refuted liberal views posted on Facebook and been de-friended as a result. That's relatively mild compared to the sentiments often expressed if politics becomes a topic of real conversation face to face.

The point is not to indict that behavior but rather to examine the expectations I've developed and how that affects my responses to it. And these are some of the expectations I've developed:

1) Liberals are driven solely by ideology and can not be reasoned with, so don't bother trying;

2) I will be attacked if I try to assert a differing point of view;

3) If I manage to refute their point of view, they will respond by ostracizing me;

The thing is, should I re-examine those expectations and find them to be valid going forward, I can still choose how to respond when a certain expectation is met.

1) My goal is to facilitate a discussion, not to win an argument. While I have no control over how the other person(s) will react, I have control of my behavior. My goal now is to listen, and to make them feel heard. I do not have to have the same expectation of them. The goal is to hear and understand their view not to agree with it;

2) If I am attacked, I can set boundaries on how other behave and withdraw gracefully if needed; I'm willing to have a discussion, but it is NOT OK to bludgeon me verbally;

3) If someone chooses to withdraw from me because of my choices, that is OK. Their choice does not reflect on me.