I have to keep reminding myself not to block users on Twitter and reddit who voice political opinions I disagree with. Particularly as the election gets closer and people start discussing the issues they’re passionate about a bit more.
I found myself doing it firstly with users who were clearly expressing violent, racist or sexist views but then I blocked one or two people who I just couldn’t be bothered arguing with. It’s just so easy to be defeatist on social media, where everyone argues but nobody ever changes their mind.
Then there’s the spectre that I could just be arguing with someone paid to blurt out talking point ad infinitum or even a bot.
But I realised it’s a really bad practice. If I’m just blocking out views I disagree with I might miss a detail I hadn’t heard of or worse I might not realise there are some issues that people in other parties and I might actually agree on.
Sometimes I think it’s easy to forget that there are things we can all agree need fixing, debating the things we disagree on is important of course, but it’s sometimes surprising how much we can agree as well.