Word, your whole post I quoted part of was great, so cheers.
But I resonated with this part the most. This has been my experience with this subforum, as well. When I started coming here, I was more or less in an echo chamber, as so many of us are, in my life. Almost all of my friends and family are liberal-leaning, and that has always been the case for me. I had very little understanding of how someone could have arrived at the conclusions that people on the right do, it seemed like madness, like they must just be dumb. I was never so lazy as to believe that everyone on the right is an evil racist or anything, but I did tend to see them as, at the very least, brainwashed and perhaps I had some amount of thinking they might, by and large, be rather dumb.
Over the years, though, I have had so many great discussions with people on here, and made friends, even if sometimes my friends can make me feel frustrated or upset with their views. I can't even tell you how much I have grown as a person and learned about what goes into someone holding beliefs that I do not share. And there have been several topics that I have revised my own stance on in important ways. One of those is the response to covid and the vaccines, I went from thinking it wouldn't be a bad thing if we forced everyone to get vaccinated, to strongly believing it should be everyone's own choice, and also believing that the whole vaccine push has become a blatant money grab which accomplishes nothing again Omicron, and may even have disturbing negative health ramifications. That's the most recent one, but there have been others, too.
I really do try my hardest to try to understand everyones' point of view and give everyone the respect of assuming they are coming from a place of believing in the rightness of the positions they hold, the same as I do. Especially in these times, it is so easy to jump on the bandwagon of hate and just paint the half of the population that isn't part of your political tribe as stupid/evil/not worthy of respect. The greatest thing I have gotten from this forum is the ability to realize in a visceral way that that kind of attitude is not only lazy and rude, but it is also destructive to society. Treating each other with disdain and disrespect as a default is the way that we will find ourselves in a society that has fallen apart, and likely eventually, in a civil ar. Other than the sociopaths among us, who are the actual enemy, we are all the same... we love our family and friends, we fear for them, and want what is best for them. I'm certainly not perfect, and I sometimes let people get under my skin here, but it's so much easier to remember these days that if I ran into pretty much anyone here (and not just here, but anywhere in America or indeed the world), we would very likely have a polite and pleasant interaction. The guy I might feel frustrated or angry at, is a decent person, worthy of respect.
I also just wanted to say, I really appreciate your contributions here,
@Juicewrldfan . You treat everyone with respect and are willing to engage in civil discourse with people, even when people bait you. I wanted to let you know that I see that, and I appreciate it.
Ugh, I listen to NPR in the car a lot, but sometimes they have some really asanine stuff, which this is a perfect example of. I wish they'd focus less on identity politics, although I think they do a better job of being professional than most everyone else in the news/reporting business, and I love a lot of what they have on their programs.
Another really aggravating segment I heard a while back was on one of their food shows, they had a guest who was pushing the idea that we need to eliminate the racism in our food choices. She was trying to claim that if you cook food that isn't the food your ancestors cooked, you're racist because you're culturally appropriating. Like I'm white, and if I cook Indian food, I'm being racist and causing harm to Indian people. Thankfully, the hosts of the show did not agree and were trying to argue against it, but yeah, that's insane. Me cooking Indian food is me celebrating and appreciating another culture's food, which I respect, admire, and love because it's amazing! Culture is a melting pot. Cultural appropriation is when you profit off of another culture's traditions/inventions/etc, by stealing it and marketing it without their permission and none of that profit goes to the people of that culture. Cooking another culture's food, or playing/enjoying anther culture's music, or whatever, is just what happens when cultures meet and coexist. And now that we're connected worldwide to each other, the whole world is mixing. I'm quite sure that no Indian people have ever been hurt when I cooked some of their dishes, and in fact if I found out someone was cooking my food, I'd be honored and happy other people appreciated it. And if there is anyone who feels oppressed because someone is cooking their culture's food and enjoying it at home, I would suggest to them that they should quit letting the media implant harmful ideas in their head.
. Night bro
, Victory 
, and thumbs up 
hand gestures were white supremacist dog whistles. 
