I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times

“If there’s one thing that most people on the left and right can agree on, it’s that the way we treat and talk to the other side is broken. We can’t stomach the ideas across the political divide, let alone the people who hold them. More and more of us see people on the other side as uniquely dishonest, closed-minded, unintelligent, and/or immoral, according to a landmark 2022 study by the Pew Research Center.”

This quote establishes one of the book’s central paradoxes: While Americans agree that political division is a crisis, they struggle to address it because they view their opponents as fundamentally flawed. The irony of finding common ground about the inability to find common ground sets up Guzmán’s larger argument about the need for new approaches to political dialogue. By citing the Pew Research Center study, Guzmán grounds personal observations in broader social science research, suggesting that political animosity has become measurable and systematic. This data supports the theme of The Importance of Bridging Divides by demonstrating how dehumanization of political opponents has become normalized, making it harder but even more crucial to foster understanding across ideological lines.

“We’re desperate to correct the lies that make bad divisions worse. I get it; I am, too. But we’re missing something big here. Misinformation isn’t the product of a culture that doesn’t value truth. It’s the product of a culture in which we’ve grown too afraid to turn to each other and hear it.”

This passage challenges conventional approaches to combating misinformation, arguing that fact-checking alone cannot bridge political divides. Guzmán suggests that misinformation thrives not because people reject truth, but because they lack meaningful connections with those who hold different views. This interpretation supports both Questioning Assumptions Rather Than Changing Minds and Curiosity as a Tool for Understanding by shifting focus from correcting false beliefs to examining why people embrace them.