Welcome back to your favorite lateral side step.

As some of you might know, I spend most of my time and energy split between the US, where Blindspot does most of its business and Romania, where I was born and raised (not by wolves, though).

The reason that’s important is that these past few months have been a literal electoral nightmare for me - keeping one eye on what’s happening in the US and another what’s happening in Romania, where, since most of you aren’t probably aware, presidential elections are happening as we speak.

Rest easy, this isn’t going to be a political rant. I’m not old or mad enough to go there yet.

The reason I’m even tackling this topic is because I had a 1 hour conversation with a cab driver that I initially thought was public enemy #1.

At the end of the drive, he’s reconsidering his political stance and I’m genuinely researching some of the information he shared to double check if my facts are actual facts.

We both won. But that’s not usually the case.

What I want to touch base on, though, is information circulation. And, more precisely, some observations I’ve made in regards to why we have such a hard time convincing others.

Before we dive into the mind killer, though, let’s dive into the mind teaser:

As usual, the answer is at the end (that sounds bleak, doesn’t it?).

Don’t get mad & don’t get even.

Politics is one of the most infuriating topics I can’t think of.

It almost never involves a productive conversation, it’s mostly centered around who can make the other person look like an idiot and nobody follows up on anything that was said or done.

Despite these facts, most people form their opinions based on other people’s opinions. Why?

Because following politics is excruciating for anyone who’s not paid to do so.

It’s built like that on purpose. If things were easy and TL;DRs were common, more people would understand the consequences of their actions (voting).

But who wants that?

For example, it’s easy to dismiss someone’s personality and consider that the be-all of their character.

Oh, did you see what that guy said? How can you want him in charge?

People forget the point of a collaborative democracy is making a compromise.

That compromise often means picking the path least likely to do more harm to an economy, nation or overall collective.

But our hatred towards individual topics often supersedes the point of the collective compromise.

It’s what a lot of political platforms rely on right now in the world. Hatred towards a certain demographic or social category. I’m pretty sure this sounds familiar to most of you, but you’d be surprised how many people reading this are thinking about opposite sides of the political spectrum.

It’s true across the board. The only way “the mind killer” wins if we focus on the things that make us different rather than focusing on the things that we have in common.

Please know the only way to change someone’s mind is to truly try to understand what they’re going through.