Every week I'll be here to reveal and review some of my favorite moments from the internet. Whether it be bingeing television shows, streaming sports, or simply getting lost in a YouTube rabbit hole, I'm here to give you my top picks every Friday, as well as the perfect pairing to get into an optimal headspace for them. This week, we're looking for common ground to begin rebuilding American discourse by attacking problems with the idea that we will agree to agree.

Politics in a Bubble

Recommended Pairing: A few domestic brews poured into an apple pie shaped like a bald eagle holding a gun. 

and this:



I'm actually glad I didn't see that "salute" live. It might have killed me.

I'll give you an example: I was at a dinner party last weekend and a girl was bragging about how she had successfully blocked and ignored every single Trump and Bernie supporter on her social media feeds.

To my surprise she didn't understand my concern when she proudly boasted that she gets all of her news from social media, essentially filtering out all dissenting views from her life. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm guilty too. I imagine we all are. It feels healthier to live in a world that constantly reinforces your views, but it's not. 

Ten years ago I was doing a lot more commuting and enjoyed listening to equal parts conservative AM talk radio, NPR, and sports talk. I felt that it was important to be well-read, informed and open to the prevailing thoughts from the major political forces so I could make sound judgments and arguments when prompted.

Since then I've also fallen into the trap of filtering my news to align with my own well-established thoughts and opinions. It's self-perpetuating and counter-productive.

Our collective passive aggression has created physical and digital safe spaces for ourselves. That can't be a good thing. We no longer have common ground and safely and happily plant our flags on opposite sides.

Fuck that. I'm not going to start listening to AM radio or subscribe to r/theDonald, but I am actively searching out other people's reasonings and not just their gut feelings.

I know there's a rule about not talking about sex, religion, or politics at dinner parties, but we have completely lost the ability to engage in political discourse. So let me propose something — let's agree to agree. Simple as that. Let's engage in conversation with the goal to find things we can both agree on. It's easy and fun!

I tried this with my conservative family and some other folks I typically disagree with politically and found we can agree, at least in part, on some very controversial items in an ever expanding list.

• All men are created equal and women are equal to men.
• Guns are dangerous.
• There's too much money in elections.
• Mankind has polluted the planet too much.
• College tuition and student loans is out of control.
• Black lives matter*.

It honestly wasn't even that hard and nobody yelled at or accused anyone of being a fascist or a pink-o commie! All you have to do is change the style of discussion from trying to sway someone to your side to trying to find things within issues that you both think make sense. 

We're never going to start fixing all the stupid shit plaguing this country without relearning how to talk to each other about serious issues in a serious way. Let's frame the actual issues we are facing so we can have a reasonable debate on how to handle them.

'Til next week...

*All lives matter, yes, but we're going to focus on Black Lives for right now since they seem to be the ones who keep getting shot by cops for no good reason.