Let me start by saying that this is hard--writing about my shift in political views. Politics is a hard subject for people. I don't think it's because it is inherently a difficult subject. I think we've been told not to discuss either politics or religion from a young age, and so we don't. We're told not to discuss it, and yet we have personal attachments to politics, because politics play out every day in our lives. That's a toxic tension we give ourselves. Of course, there are reasons we've done this. Whether we're told this by the wealthy elite to keep us (the "ordinary" people) out of political and religious power, or whether people are naturally conflict avoidant is up for debate. I think there are a lot of factors at play in this idea that we should stay away from tough conversations, in general, and the two I mentioned are certainly factors in the idea that we should stay away from political and religious conversations. Whatever the reas