If you acknowledge people and say:

“Look, even though you're all the way over there on the other side of the spectrum, I know you’ve got your reasons for being there.

I know you found your way to those beliefs in a similar way I found my way to mine—and we’re both human.

Actually, a lot of the time, we just want what’s best for ourselves and our loved ones.

We want to live in a place where we feel safe and happy.

We’re kind of in the same game here—we just have different ideas about how it works. Let’s talk about it.”

That’s how you move someone closer to your position.

You fixate on your commonalities and have compassion for them, and that will create cognitive dissonance, which will do the rest.

You know, most of my work as a probation officer with criminals was just helping them see that of all the government officers they’d ever worked with, I was the one who actually cared for them.

That was pretty much all I had to do.

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To dive deeper into this topic, check out the original video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1MmYZs2JtU

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