Which Side Are You On?
“So, what side are you on?” A man asked me as he was walking up to the bar as I was working my bartending job. He was leaving a heated political discussion at a table to get another drink from the bar. I was caught off guard by such an open, yet specific, question. I responded with one of my default, get out of political talk, answers, “I prefer not to share, I tend to not enjoy having half of people dislike me off the bat.” In which is a true statement taking after my dislike of judgement. The simple yet loaded question of, what side are you on, really speaks volumes of how out society is today.
Growing up I was raised to not worry about someone’s political standpoint as is should not play a part in judging one’s overall character. Welcome to 2021 and asking someone’s political stance is practically an ice breaker.
When did it get so black and white? Or should I say red and blue? Elephant or Donkey? Mask or no mask? Why are political standpoints so one or the other and not a spectrum of the different beliefs that we each have? What if we do not fall into one of the distinct “sides”? And if we do say one or the other, what all does that mean that you are standing for?
Are you a Trump worshiping human if you say one and a radical left if you say the other? What do people think of when they tie one to a specific party? How do you respond if you are far from either of these things? These simply worded questions can be deeper than we think.
If you can take anything from this, I hope it is too not judge the entirety of a person, based off of who they vote for.
