Salary. Religion. Politics. The three things forbidden from conversation at the dinner table. At least, that is what we were told growing up. Those were the days, weren’t they? Back when people were courteous enough to not start a full fledged war at Thanksgiving dinner. Now, for the life of me, I cannot understand why salary is a no-no at dinner time, but that is a conversation for another day. Today, we focus on the scourge that has ripped happy families apart and soiled countless relationships: politics.

Politics was always a scary thing for me growing up. Not because I was frightened of our leaders, we have had many tremendous people take office over the years. I was scared of politics because of the fact that I was not able to fully grasp the magnitude of the situations these people were involved in. Politics was always a smart, grown-up activity.

This all changed around 2015. I can still remember it now. Little 11 year-old Will turning on the TV to find a man by the name of Donald Trump announcing his candidacy for president of the United States. Being a young-sapling eager for knowledge, I asked my dad who this man was. He explained, and I was able to vaguely understand the emphasis people were putting on this announcement. Little did I know, this announcement would change political discourse for the rest of time.

Disclaimer: by no means am I putting blame on Trump or his supporters for this discourse explosion. They were just the ones that lit the powder keg. With the emergence of social media throughout the 2010’s, people were finally able to bring their ideas and opinions to the forefront of people’s screens for anyone to see. While this sounds like an ideal scenario and a cyber-utopia, one must remember just how crazy the general population can be.

For every one great and world changing idea, there are twenty trolls whose only purpose in this life is to make people feel anger. All of these factors led to the “political enlightenment” that the world went through just eight years ago. The problem is, eight years later, people still have the same passion for social media as they did when it first came out.

This social media boom has had its most detrimental impact on society by allowing people to trick themselves into believing that their opinions are either always right or credible at all. Ideas are important. What would our world be without ideas? Some major historical figures like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking have forever impacted the world just by their ability to think things out. The problem with our predicament is that a large majority of people today lack critical thinking skills.

Misinformation has run these sites rampant and there is little to nothing that these media companies can do in the fight against it. For most educated individuals, it is easy to see something false and ignore it. For a large population, it is fuel to a hateful fire in their hearts. Media companies and news outlets have been able to pander to society’s anger for years in order to encourage division between common men.

Although this is a frustrating topic for most that enter the world of politics, there is nothing we can do. Social media will always be there meaning people will always believe their opinion is valued. At the end of the day, it is a storm society must weather and make it through.

I leave you with one final request. Let’s be civil. The times of avoiding politics are over. It would be illogical to petition people as a whole to get rid of that part of their lives. However, there is no reason for hostility. While there are issues which may be filled with emotions, we are all on the same team at the end of the day. So, instead of hurling the first insult to a group of cousins on the other side of the aisle on Thanksgiving, why don’t we try talking like normal well-functioning humans.