What is a political issue that you want to understand the opposite viewpoint more?

[Azuren]

As someone who was formerly hard left who (temporarily) married into a hard right family, I'd like to think I have a pretty good understanding of what both the left and right think and where they come from.

The majority of the left wants equal rights for women and minorities, and for everyone to be "safe". Their failing is that many of their radicalized members alienate a rather large chunk of America: white cisgender males who refuse to be cucks. Another issue with the left is it's gradual profession into socialism, which is unsustainable as long as the military is the way it is. Many leftists like to point to heavily homogenized European ountries as proof that it works, directly conflicting with the notion that they stand for minorities and women.

Another big one is the defense of Islam, which directly contradicts most of their points. Islamophobia aside, traditional Muslim values just simply don't coincide with most left values. For a bit of anecdotal evidence, a friend of mine is a fairly recent transplant from Kurdistan. He was appalled as the public displays of emotion allowed in America, and moreso that open gays and transgenders weren't ironically in hiding. He's come to understand that they're people too since then, but has told me that he can't let his parents know he thinks that or they would take him back to Kurdistan and "punish him properly". I don't know about you, but that's terrifying to me. Not all Muslims are bad, but there are enough bad ones to warrant concern. In fact, recent polls in countries with high concentrations of Muslims has shown that more than half of the Muslims in the civilized world believe in honor killing for disgraceful/disgraced women. There simply is enough to be concerned about. As much as the right is concerned? No, but we have had significantly less Islamic terrorist attacks this year than Britain as a result.

And then gun control. Do people need semi-automatic rifles? No, a hunting rifle is all you need to take down game. Do you need one to defend yourself from a burglar? No, a pistol would do the job fine. But then comes the aspect that liberals laugh at; do you need a semi-automatic rifle to defend yourself from a tyrannical government? Yes. Is it a silly notion to believe governments go tyrannical? Not by a long shot. Every time a government has gone tyrannical in history, the first thing they do is disarm the populace. So imagine the right's righteous anger and fear when nearly half of the country believes we should willingly disarm to a serious extent, whereas a smaller but still massive portion believes complete disarmament. For all the Nazi name calling, it certainly is strange that the left wants to first do exactly what Hitler did about gun control.

And one final thing: abortion. I'm pro-choice, and my choice will always be to have the child. I believe in abortion as a choice, though... Early ones. Late term abortions are absolutely barbaric, and at that point you're not terminating a fetus, you are horrifically dismembering a small, unfinished child.



And where do I even start with the right? The racist alt-right, the complete disregard for the separation of church and state, islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, Reaganomics, TRUMP?! I mean, I don't even feel like discussing it is even necessary at this point. Practically the entire Republican party needs a reboot.

Centrist/Libertarians ftw.