[vorpalhex]

As a youth, I remember being strongly instilled that neither politics nor religion were appropriate topics for "polite conversation". Instead you generally talked hobbies, plans, family, etc.

Conversations are a bit of a puzzle. You are trying to identify the overlap of two parties interests.

Now I see a lot of people who start right out of the gate with politics and immediately become hostile when you disagree on some small element. I don't even mind politics or political debate, but political opinions aren't a substitute for personality.

[kelseyfrog]

I remember the same. However, as I've gotten older and everything has become political, the non-political path has gotten smaller and smaller and has all but disappeared.

Even more importantly, I've realized that it's not healthy to have an entire social diet composed of polite conversations. Emotional vulnerability and openness is a necessary ingredient for meaningful social engagement. An opening move into politics is still an out of pocket move, but never engaging openly stunts a potentially deep bond.

[vorpalhex]

Polite conversations are for strangers, coworkers, and other people who have to deal with you in a service role.

To rephrase, please don't give your waitress or barber a rant on how candidate X is doing A and B.

You should have good friends who willingly engage in deep conversation with you, whether it's religion, sex, politics, etc. That is where your openness and vulnerability are - not with bots on twitter.

[bradlys]

But is a polite conversation even worth having? I’m honestly not convinced. Just because I went out and conversed with some folks in a polite way doesn’t mean I feel any less lonely. In fact - I’d likely feel even more lonely than if I hadn’t gone out at all. Now I’m surrounding myself with people I can’t even form a real connection with because we can’t talk about anything real.

I’ve noticed this pattern with quite a few people I’ve met lately. Completely embarrassed to discuss anything significant like why they’re doing what they’re doing, what they want out of life, and how they’re going about accomplishing it - if at all. It’s topics that most people are just deathly afraid of speaking about while in public but truly are necessary to understand what the heck a person really is like. (Assuming you want to be close to them and support them)