Last week, I went to lunch with a neighbor. She's a very intelligent and kind person. We've gotten to know each other a bit since I've been back to the US and we decided to go out for Mexican food. I knew (based on a sign in her yard and a few things she's said in passing) that we didn't agree at all politically, but I also know that she is a good person who feeds birds, takes in stray pets, and is beloved by every kid in the neighborhood.

I've mostly avoided discussing politics (which pains me because, as everyone knows, I'm all about the current events.) But over lunch, the conversation somehow veered that way, and we both were floored by what the other person was convinced was factual.

Now, before you go thinking, "Daisy, shut up and eat your taco," let me be absolutely clear that even though we didn't agree on the details, we did mostly agree on what we'd like to see in America. We left that lunch laughing and joking and making plans to get together again. We weren't just being polite - we've texted back and forth since then, too.

Remember how it used to be when you could have different opinions and still be friends?

Yeah. Like that. It was glorious.

But regarding the meat of the conversation, I was stunned by how different one's perspective is when they get all their news from the mainstream instead of alternative sources. And not just any mainstream but certain parts of the mainstream. The absolute conviction because someone has followed a story closely is not foreign to me. I tend to be convinced that I know what happened because I've checked so many sources, too.

But it's all about one's sources.

And it got me thinking about the two Americas we see. You could easily divide them by who thinks Biden is a kind old guy doing a great job and is very effective and people who think he's a senile, doddering old man who has gotten rich selling favors.

This is what fuels our division when you have people who can't put those differences aside and talk about educating children to be curious people, and feeding the birds in our yards, and that one neighbor who steals kids' balls if they go into his yard and the parent has to go get it back, and the eye-watering price of groceries.

There's no way I could say that my friend is not a critical thinker - she is. And she'd say the same of me. But we draw such different conclusions about the same events that it boggles the mind. And how terrifying it is that these two input streams of information are creating this division in the United States.

I know that we all know you see a story differently based on whether you watch MSNBC or Fox. That's not an epiphany. But to see it so close up and yet still have a pleasant conversation where we both walked away feeling like we'd learned something was very refreshing.

We can't broadly condemn people who have formed their opinions based on the input they're getting. The problem isn't them - it's the input. It's the shocking scope of the mainstream media and its ability to conform thinking. But it also makes me wonder if we aren't doing a little bit of the same. Of course, as a libertarian, I firmly hold certain beliefs about what powers our government should and should not have, and I am also well able to see the corruption in our highest offices. But - how much of what I "know" is happening comes from biased information, too?

If there is a court case going on and you hear most of the details and excerpts from someone on the side of the defendant, you'll have one perspective. But if you hear most of the details and excerpts from the prosecution, without input from the side of the defense, you'll see it entirely differently.

And therein lies the problem. Nobody gets the full story. We do our absolute best on The OP to present things fairly and evenly, and I know a lot of other alternative media folks do the same thing. But when you really sit and think about it, are any of us really getting "the whole story?" Add in deep fakes and AI, and getting the truth will soon be even more difficult.

I don't know how we bridge this gap. My neighbor and I will never agree on everything, but we can get around that and still be friends. I think we're the exception instead of the rule, though. And it's because we're both willing to suspend our disbelief and listen to the other person. We can let them have opinions that are totally different and still see the person inside with a good heart and a snarky sense of humor.

Maybe we need to work a little harder to find points in common again instead of writing people off for holding different opinions. I'm certainly never going to be a Biden fan, but I should be able to accept that other people have heard a different story of him than I have.

Perhaps it's a place to start. Because if we don't start somewhere our divided nation cannot stand.

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