OPINION: I Fear We've Forgotten How to Respectfully Disagree

I need to share something. It's just my opinion and you may not agree with it, but I hope you'll consider my words. It's about how it seems like many have forgotten how to respectfully disagree about stuff.

I don't want to sound like the old man that I am, but I remember an era where a person could express an opinion without being shouted down like a hardened criminal. You could actually discuss a controversial topic and still remain friends when all was said and done.

There's a different vibe in the air now. I blame much of this on social media, but I fear there's something more to it. We share a lot of content on Facebook. When something is a hot topic, it almost never fails to degenerate into name calling when the discussion gets heated. To me, that's sad.

I think we can also pin some of the blame on political correctness. For some reason, we've arrived at a place where some people cannot accept that others see the world in a different way than they do. It's not a conservative or liberal issue either in my opinion. I see rigidity on both sides of the aisle and that's fine. I have very deep convictions that no one will ever change (and I dare you to try), but it's where those conversations lead that troubles me.

I am a very conservative person, but I am fine with friends of all persuasions and can talk to them about nearly anything. When the conversation about an issue reaches the point where things start to get heated, I always like to just defer to the phrase "Let's agree to disagree". For some reason, that doesn't seem to be OK with many people anymore.

I see this among our elected leaders also. There seem to be very few civil debates. Instead, it becomes a flame war on Twitter or choose your favorite social media platform of choice. I have to wonder if that doesn't have a trickle down effect on our culture.

This is just my anecdotal observation. It may or may not be accurate. It's just my opinion. If you don't agree, that's fine. I just hope we can remain friends afterward. Is that OK with you?