You've got a nice way of putting to words ideas that I sometimes struggle to communicate, but I definitely would have to agree that coming together is vastly superior to basically any alternative. We're at a point where you have entire nations with people living next door to one another seeing each other as enemies. It almost sounds laughable to even consider that we COULD tackle some of the crazy issues we now face, given how little unity there ever seems to be on anything.

I'm someone who had a bit of a rough go of it, early in life. I had ADD/ADHD combined (not sure what it is nowadays, but thats what I WAS diagnosed with, in the 90s.) and always struggled with school. Then struggled with addiction for a while right out of highschool. These hardships, I feel, gave me far better perspective on the human psyche. And a bit of insight into just how similar we all are to one another. I really hate the idea nowadays of just throwing the whole person away, and I definitely think positive change is possible. I'll have to try and remember to always be civil, as you mention, as it really is the only way to cut through the bullshit a lot of the time.

Your final thoughts on the matter, there, echo my own quite nicely. I think that usually if you can get far enough along with any given person, that you can find SOME kind of common ground or understanding. Most of the time. I do hope that we (the collective we, lol) can learn to put aside our differences to a much greater degree than we do today. It almost seems like we've taken a few steps back in that area, though, in the last decade or so. One thing is for sure, to me, though, and its that extreme views really don't promote much positive change, even if you personally believe your cause to be righteous.