Green Group discussion

TED talk on how to have better political conversations. Interesting part on environmental discussions:

https://www.ted.com/talks/robb_willer...

Very sensible, reasonable approach. Empathy and respect are critical to bridge the divide, for sure.

Heck, none of us wants to be among the Army of the Undead in the Zombie Apocalypse. Brains should be used, not eaten! ;-)

I find it so hard to be reasonable now when someone says something like, "The earth is 6,000 years old." I heard that recently and many times before. I can't help but feel anyone who says that is an idiot. I'm struggling with moderate responses.

Agreed. In some cases, if the other party starts the discussion from a completely untenable position, there's no point in continuing. Then there's nothing to be done but to respectfully disagree and move on, I guess.

With Trump voters it might be a good idea to ask what were your concerns and needs for your life that led you to vote for Trump? If these are needs for employment, better health care etc these can be answered using "I feel that need too (establish openness and a commonality) and the way I understand how to get that is..."

Highly recommend reading David Bohms Essays “On Dialogue”… beautiful and highly intelligent balanced works looking at philosophical but also very practical approaches to facilitating good political (and otherwise) communication, and why it’s so important.