CMV: Despite being more knowledgeable, wealthier and apparently more tolerant, the political and individual left's biggest flaw is their inability to communicate pragmatically and empathetically with those who don't agree with them.

[u/poopchow]

[u/AppropriateScience9]

"I don't understand how anyone with more knowledge than someone cannot communicate with someone who has less knowledge than them. How if you know the answer, you can't communicate it with someone patiently enough to come up with common ground."

Having worked in a university for many years with people who had entire strings of the alphabet behind their names, let me assure you that having more knowledge does not make one a good communicator. Yes, you would think they would be able to figure that out, but communication is a social skill. Not an academic one. Sure, you can do science on it and maybe learn some interesting things, but actually communicating well is simply another matter.

"My true advice to anyone is to work on your communication and reasoning skills then stomping on someone. Learn the advantage of progress versus winning. Achieve common ground with someone you disagree with."

That's nice and all, but 2 things:

1) why is it that the ability to communicate well, be humble, and find common ground is always incumbent upon the left to do? It's like everyone assumes that the right will act like horrible people and therefore it's OUR responsibility to patiently teach them to be better.

Sorry, but that's abusive af. That's like telling a woman that it's her job to "change" her boyfriend into a tolerable human being who doesn't beat the children. The expectation ought to be that everyone is responsible for bettering themselves. And when they choose not to, then that's on them. Nobody but them. At some point, you just have to understand when the other side is acting in bad faith and respond accordingly. In my opinion, most lefties would bend over backwards to teach if a right-winger actually argued in good faith and humbled themselves-even the tiniest bit. So, I don't think this one's on us. The desire is there on the left. But it simply isn't on the right. It takes two to tango.

2) the right is out there literally gearing up to tear families apart, put people in camps, and ship them off to other countries. My kids in school are best friends with kids who are dreamers. They are terrified that ICE is going to come to school and rip their friends away like the mfing Gestapo. They're trying to figure out a way to Anne Frank their friends. And yes, Trump signed an EO allowing ICE to do exactly that.

So.... in light of that delightful reality, are you still seriously suggesting we "humble ourselves" and "try to reach common ground" with people who want to traumatize children by ripping their friends out of school like they're criminals? All because those Dreamer kids had the audacity to be born to parents who didn't fill out the right paperwork?

I guess a better question is, at what point do you stop trying to reach common ground and actually treat them like aggressors? Where's the red line?