Welcome to the listening time podcast.
Hey everybody, this is connor and you're listening to episode 180 of the listening time podcast, and today's episode is going to be about elections, and i'm sure you know why because i think that, if i got the date right, that the time that this episode will be released is during the week of the presidential election in the united states.
So even if you don't live in the US, I'm sure that there is a lot of news about this.
I'm sure that a lot of you even have an opinion about this, even if you don't live in the US.
And I'm sure that a lot of you even have a strong opinion about this.
And that is because elections are very, very divisive, especially nowadays.
So I'm not going to talk in detail about the different candidates and the different parties and who I support, because let me just give you a spoiler alert here.
Remember that a spoiler alert means that I'm gonna tell you the answer to something before you even get the chance to listen to the whole episode.
Just a spoiler alert, I don't like anyone in politics.
And I don't have an allegiance to a party or whatever.
Allegiance refers to a loyalty to someone or something.
So I don't have an allegiance or a loyalty to a party.
And so don't worry.
I'm not gonna talk here about all of my opinions and offend you because you think differently from me.
Don't worry, I'm not gonna do that.
I just wanna talk in general about the divisiveness of elections and why it's so divisive nowadays, how this is becoming more divisive as the years go on.
And even though I'll be talking about the US, I'm sure that for many of you, depending on where you live, presidential elections can also be very divisive.
So I'm sure this will be relevant no matter who you are.
So I'm sure you'll be interested in this topic today.
And I do want to mention that if you want my training for your pronunciation and for your listening, then I highly recommend that you join my membership.
And specifically, if you want my pronunciation seminars, you can become a Listening Time super member.
And if you want that and my advanced episodes as well, then you can become a Listening Time family member.
So the link to sign up is down below.
And if you're interested in the US and not just the election here, but the country in general, the culture, the differences between different states then I also highly recommend that you listen to my US.
Conversations podcast in which I talk to other native speakers from around the U.S.
It's great practice for your listening.
And you get the chance to learn a lot about our culture, our different cities and states, our different ideas.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, let's talk about the divisiveness of elections, specifically in the U.S.
But of course, this can apply to many other countries as well.
Kind of funny enough.
Before I start with this, I do want to mention that The one country that I'm familiar with in which I feel like this topic isn't that divisive is Mexico.
And maybe if you're from Mexico, you might disagree with me.
But trust me, I've spent many years in Mexico and I've talked to many different Mexicans.
In general, I can say that even though people support their candidate, who they like, or the person that is less worse than the other candidate, even though they vote, they're not necessarily going to stop being friends with people who vote for the other party.
They probably aren't going to have very heated arguments where they yell and scream at each other.
And in many cases, I've found this to be true that people just kind of joke about politics.
Not everyone, but the people that I've had experience with.
They don't take it quite as personally as people take it in the US.
Now let me talk about the US.
I just wanted to mention that because I thought that was really interesting about Mexico.
But in the US and in many other countries.
I know this is the case all throughout Europe Brazil, many places, many countries where I've had students from I know that presidential elections are divide families, they divide friends.
They're really a big deal in the sense that people take these elections very personally.
Let's say so nowadays in the us, political views really matter to people.
Political views are essential for most people in the US.
They have some type of opinion about politics.
Everyone is pushed to have a strong opinion one way or or the other, right?
You'll meet a lot of people that feel really strongly about a lot of different political issues.
And because of this, people like to have friends and be around people that think like them.
Because if you feel really strongly about different issues, you'll probably have a hard time getting along with people that don't share your same opinion.
Because that feeling you have is so strong, you'll probably have trouble being good friends with someone who thinks differently from you.
This is different when people don't have very strong opinions about things.
Like, for example, if we talk about hobbies, there are certain hobbies and sports that I think are really cool and other ones that I think aren't cool.
But i don't feel so strongly about this that i would have trouble hanging out with someone that doesn't like my favorite sport, for example.
You see the difference there.
I don't feel that strongly about that and in general, people don't feel uh, as strongly about anything as they do about politics.
That is the number one thing that makes people feel very passionate about something.
So it makes sense that there is a lot of division nowadays because of that, because of how powerful these feelings are.
In the past I think that it was easier for people to have friends with different political views.
I say this because I remember growing up, being a little kid, and there would be elections.
And I remember, for example, my mom had certain views.
She had certain political views that she held.
And she would talk about the fact that her friends would sometimes differ from her.
And she would say, ah...
So-and-so is voting for the other person.
When we say so-and-so.
It's a phrase that we use when we don't want to give an actual name of a person.
We're just talking in general about some other random person.
So she would say, so-and-so is voting for this person, and my mom wasn't voting for that person.
And this didn't mean that they had heated arguments and hurt each other's feelings and got really emotional about it.
No, they just disagreed and sometimes they would talk about it and sometimes they would argue a little bit, but it never got super personal.
So i remember that and i'm not saying that it wasn't divisive then, but it feels much more divisive now.
I think, as the years go by, People have this sensation that this political debate, this election, the topics that are being discussed today, are the most important things ever and ever.
If the wrong person wins, everything is going to collapse.
People have more of that feeling nowadays.
And I think that if politics were only about economics, government structure, practical matters, administrative things, then people wouldn't take things quite so personally.
But now, politics seems very personal and social.
It's not just people's ideas about economics and how the government should be run and how things will be managed.
It's very closely related to people's beliefs and philosophy about very personal matters, things related to social issues.
For a lot of people, this is like the only thing that they're really passionate about.
They don't really know much about economics or what the economic plan is for each candidate.
They don't even know their own candidates' voting record, how they voted in the past on certain issues, or maybe if they used to be a governor or a mayor or a congressman.
They don't really know much about how effective they were.
They don't pay as much attention to these things that for many, many years were the most important things, like economics, for example.
Nowadays, many people vote and get passionate about elections specifically because of the social issues.
And because those issues are more personal, people are more passionate about them and they divide people more Versus.
In the past, when there wasn't as much debate about different social issues, politics probably didn't seem quite as personal right.
So another reason why I think that politics and elections are so much more divisive now is because of social media and things like YouTube, for example, and podcasts, right.
So People are now able to immerse themselves for hours and hours every day in politics and the news and hearing their favorite commentator talk about politics.
And normally what people do is they listen to and watch politics and read things that confirm their own beliefs.
So if someone has strong feelings about a certain political issue, that person will probably seek out different content creators who share their beliefs and are going to give them news and stories and commentaries that confirm those beliefs.
You know what I'm talking about.
Many of you probably do this as well.
When you have strong opinions about political issues, you listen to people who share your opinions and can give you evidence that your opinions are correct and give you evidence that the other side is wrong or is dumb, is not smart or is evil or whatever right.
You know what i'm talking about.
So in the past people could not immerse themselves in all of this political discussion like they can nowadays.
Nowadays they can listen to political stuff all day long and just stay in their own echo chamber and confirm and strengthen their beliefs.
We use the phrase echo chamber to talk about when someone only hears other people talk who think like them, who support the same things they do and believe the same things they do.
So it's kind of like you say something and then you hear the echo of that thing because someone else says the same thing.
So we use the term echo chamber and nowadays Many people spend their day in their own echo chamber and just strengthen their own beliefs and become more antagonistic towards other people's beliefs.
When you're antagonistic towards something or someone, that means that you have a negative feeling, a dislike of something.
You are like the enemy of that thing.
So social media YouTube, podcasts these allow people to immerse themselves in politics and create their own echo chamber and really just become more and more passionate about the topics that are important to them.
So nowadays things seem really tense, especially during election years.
Things feel tense.
You can feel it in the air when the election starts to draw closer, right?
Because this is on everyone's mind and the topic of politics is so charged with emotion and And what's interesting is that, even though it's such a divisive topic and charged with emotion, like I said, many people will readily bring this up in social settings.
Many people have no problem with just talking about politics and giving their political opinions, even if they weren't asked about them.
I have had this happen to me so many times as an English teacher.
A certain presidential candidate is like the stupidest person on the planet, or this group of people is evil, or whatever.
And that has happened so many times and it kind of surprises me because what it shows is that these people, they assume that I am going to agree with them.
And they have no problem with bringing up this topic and talking all about their opinion.
And it's kind of strange because, if you think about it, usually half of all the people think one way and half of all the people think the opposite.
That's kind of how it works in most countries, right?
At least in the US.
50 of the country usually hates the party that is in power and then the other 50 support that party right.
So it's a little strange that all of these people would just assume that I agree with them and And I have no problem talking to people about these issues, even if these people think oppositely, if they think the opposite of me.
I don't have any problem with this.
So this never turns into a heated discussion.
However...
Most people, I think, have a lot of trouble talking about this when the other person thinks the opposite.
So I'm sure you've had experience with this, where people start out talking normally, but then when it is revealed that they think differently about politics, then suddenly they can't talk because it's just a heated fight and you don't want to go there, right?
So I don't have that issue at all.
And that's a good thing because, like I said, I've had many students that just talk to me about very passionate feelings that they have about politics and just kind of assume that I think the same way, even though many times I don't agree with them.
But I have no problem talking to people who think differently from me.
And I think this is a great skill that we should all try to have.
I'm not saying i'm the best one at this.
Don't take that the wrong way what i said.
I'm just saying that i don't really have this issue.
I'm pretty good at this, but most people i know are not good at this, and i think it's perfectly fine to have your strong opinions about things.
I have very strong opinions about many things.
The difference is I can very easily have a civil conversation with someone who doesn't share my opinions.
Whereas for other people it's like a really really, really hard task to talk to someone who doesn't think like them.
So I just think that's a good skill to have to be able to talk to people that think differently.
I readily go out and look for people to make friends with who think differently from me.
Of course not, right?
I'm not saying that.
And many times I avoid this topic.
I would prefer to just avoid the topic of politics um, rather than have to try to explain to someone else that i think differently from them.
But it's okay, because usually that other person can't handle that i think differently from them, right?
So in many cases probably in most cases It's better for me if I just avoid the topic.
And I think I'm pretty good at managing the conversation if this topic comes up, so that I don't really offend the other person.
But many people can't do this.
And so I think one of the reasons why I can do this it's not because I'm just super skilled in personal communication.
It's because at the end of the day, this is something I really, really believe.
In the US at least, no matter who gets elected, we keep continuing down the same path, regardless of who is president.
I know many people would get mad at me for saying that, and this is the most controversial thing I'll probably ever say on this podcast.
But I haven't approached any controversial topics before, so you'll forgive me for this one.
But I do want to say this, that I firmly believe that not everything, but many, many things continue the same way in the US, regardless of who is president.
That doesn't mean that it doesn't matter who is president.
I'm not saying that.
But I can't get super passionate about one person or another person if I believe deep down that we're going to continue down this course, this negative course, into the future, even if the better person gets elected.
I will definitely agree that some candidates... have better ideas than other candidates.
But what I'm saying is I'm not gonna get super passionate about any candidate, because I've seen during my life that regardless of who is president, we have the same issues that keep on getting worse and worse.
Regardless of who is president, we have more wars. not legal official wars.
We never declare war anymore.
But what I mean by war is, the US is always engaged militarily all around the world, in more and more places.
This just grows year after year.
There's more war regardless of whether there's a Democrat or Republican in office, right?
It's like every president wants to have more war than the last president, just maybe against different people.
Spending, this is another thing that grows and grows and grows no matter who is president.
Right.
If there's a Democrat in office, they spend a ton of money.
And then the next person is a Republican and they say that they're going to be more financially responsible.
And then they spend even more money.
And then the next Democrat spends even more money.
That's how it is.
We just spend more and more money.
We go more and more into debt.
Uh, government grows and gets bigger, no matter who's in office.
It seems like the government takes more and more authority and power.
There's more and more bureaucracy.
Nothing really gets better.
Everything gets worse, more complicated, regardless of who's in office.
So I know that many of you disagree with me.
That's perfectly fine.
But let's practice with what I just said, that it's good to be able to listen to someone who has a different opinion from you.
This is a good chance for you to practice with that.
All right.
Well, I hope that you enjoyed this episode and that you don't feel too much anxiety about this election.
And I want to mention again that if you want my training for pronunciation or listening, or my advanced episodes, you can check out my membership.
The link is down below.
And you can also use my usconversationspodcastcom to practice with my conversations that I have with other people from around the US.
That link is also down below as well.
All right, thank you so much for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
