As the world dives deeper into politics and stirs up conversations regarding controversial topics such as religion, the presidency and even the way we live our lives, society is so quick to assume that the other side is completely wrong without evaluating any sort of evidence. Sometimes, when people are on opposite sides of a spectrum, it leads to insults and anger purely because someone has a different belief.
Everyone has heard someone tell them to stand up for what they believe in, no matter what. However, has anyone been told to look into both sides before drawing conclusions about a topic? Completely ignoring evidence that supports a side other than yours relays back to ignorance. In order to have an argument, evidence is crucial to not only support your statement, but to help understand an opposing argument.
An example of this idea is religion. There are so many different beliefs in the world, and no one can support them all. This lack of understanding can often lead to one person insulting or starting an argument with another of a different religion.
In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, those that reviewed the surveys ranked the responses from religions that were most favorable and unfavorable. The two that were ranked the warmest were Judism and Catholicism and the coolest were Islam and Atheism. Since these groups of religions are on the opposite sides of the spectrum, many make inappropriate comments about the opposite side in order to strengthen the argument for their own religion, even if the argument is baseless.
In order to have an argument in the first place, people must make sure they at least consider the points on the opposite side, as well as educating themselves on the topic beforehand.
How can one person tell another their religion is completely wrong, when religion is, at its core, a faith in something that cannot be proven but rather is based on personal belief and spirituality?
“I believe that people will attack their opponents with mean words because sometimes people feel like they need to be mean to get their point across. However, I also think that people can get their points across without attacking and by being kind,” freshman Megan Jones said.
There are other instances where two sides of a political debate may use insults or unjustified reasoning in the arguments. Many people use social media to insult the other side and try to get people to see why their side of the debate is the side they should be on.
For example, the pro-life and pro-choice debate is extrememly controversial. There are meaningful reasons for why both sides are on the side that they are on. Some of which may be that a pro-choice supporter may have been through an assult and gotten pregnant and a pro-life suppporter may not be able to carry his or her own child.
Everyone has connections to what they believe in. No one simply believes in something because they want to. Ignorance is what holds society back from having a level-headed and justified argument, especially on social media. By looking into facts and drawing a fair conclusion, attacking other people for their beliefs doesn’t have to happen.