People Rip You For Being Conservative. Here’s How YOU Stand Strong. 💪
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Summary
In this episode, I talk about how you can protect yourself from being peer pressured by people who have different views than you and who are making you feel bad about your conservative views. I also talk about the importance of having a solid foundation in order to be able to respond when someone tries to push you into a different point of view.
Transcript
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Hello beautiful ladies and welcome to today's video where we're going to be talking about
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how to avoid being peer pressured about being conservative.
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I want to preface this video by saying that this isn't about talking to your friends and
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listening to them and hearing arguments from the other side and not allowing yourself
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to actually listen. This is about being peer pressured about your views because people call
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you a bad person for having them. I think it's a wonderful and very important thing to have
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conversations with people across the aisle so that we can learn about other people's positions
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and all of that. So I do think it's important to engage with people on the other side but if people
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are just going to demonize you or villainize you I don't think that that's fair and that would be
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considered in my book peer pressure. So I have a whole list of ways that you can protect yourself
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from being peer pressured by people who have different views than you do and who are making
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you feel bad about your conservative views. So let's get into it. The first thing to do is to arm
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yourself with the arguments. Every view you hold and have should have a basis and a foundation for why
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you believe it. You shouldn't have your views just because somebody told you to. You should go and study
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up on why you should believe that. Now of course your parents and the people that you trust have
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those views for a reason so it's good to listen to them and hear why they think those things but it's
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also really important to have those arguments and understand them for yourself. You shouldn't just
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willy-nilly agree to whatever anyone says who is someone that you treat as a role model. You really
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should take the time and take your time to learn and understand those arguments before going out
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into the real world and being faced with different ones. Because the thing is news and facts will always
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be skewed one way or the other and so it's always important to understand both sides. So when somebody
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starts saying that you're a bad person for having conservative beliefs and starts just spewing media facts
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at you which have been skewed in a certain direction and are made for a certain position, you actually
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have an understanding of those statistics and understand how they've been skewed because usually
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statistics can be used to prove a point. So you will have your statistics to combat those of people who are
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demonizing you, villainizing you for having conservative views. Having the facts, having an understanding of
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why you believe what you believe is always going to be the first line of defense when someone is trying
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to peer pressure you into a different point of view. If you understand all of the things that you
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believe and you have invested the time to research and actually know why you believe those things,
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then when somebody starts peer pressuring you into believing something else because
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you would be a bad person otherwise, bad person in quotation marks, you will actually have the foundation
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to respond. But the other part of that is that if you are in a conversation with someone who
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is trying to peer pressure you into a different point of view and you don't necessarily know the
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answer or know of the statistics that they're bringing up, you can admit that you don't know.
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You can say, oh I haven't heard that before or I haven't read that or I just don't know that.
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Don't try and fake that you've heard it before because at the end of the day you're not going to be able
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to have a good argument if you've never heard it before. And so it's important for you to be able
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to admit, hey I've never heard that. And then when you go home and you decide to look it up or research
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it you will actually have that in your back pocket the next time somebody brings it up to you and
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you'll be able to say, actually I did look this up and I do understand it and actually here's an
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argument for the other side. So it is really important that you be honest with yourself and
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honest with the person that you're talking to if you didn't know what they were bringing up because
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then you don't look arrogant for having tried to start a conversation and an argument on something
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you have no basis for. So it's always important to admit when you don't know something and then
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just go home and study up and read about it so that the next time it comes up you're prepared.
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It's always important to know what the other side is saying so when they try to villainize you or
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demonize you, you actually are prepared. You've heard it before, you know what the response should be,
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and you're not totally taken off guard and then in a situation where you are being peer pressured or
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someone is telling you you're a bad person for being conservative you can actually take a moment
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and respond because you've been prepared for that instead of feeling so bad and guilty that someone
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that maybe is your friend or someone that you go to school with is calling you a bad person.
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It's really easy to want to avoid conflict by just agreeing with people and if you agree with people
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enough over time you may start to see that you actually start to agree with them internally and
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not just externally. When I was in college and in my master's and my professional studies certificate
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I constantly felt pressured to talk about my political views and when I say talk about my
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political views I mean agree with the people around me. The problem is that if you are in
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college with people who are actually going to become your work colleagues it's not just oh people I'm hanging out with and
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friends who I'm never going to actually have to see them in a work environment where in that situation
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you can easily remove yourself or say what you actually believe without fearing about losing job
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opportunities. I was working with people who would be my work colleagues who I would be in rehearsals with
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or in shows with and I didn't want to risk my career opportunities by talking about what I actually thought about
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conservative politics so often I would just agree with the people around me so that I wouldn't get
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into conflict with them but after I would agree with people I would go home I would look up the
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arguments that they were saying and just continue to give myself the information so that I understood
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my own positions. If you just continually agree with people because you care about them and you don't want
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to be shunned often you will start to see that maybe your positions will start to change because you're not
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backing up your own positions you're not talking about them enough and you're hearing such an influx
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of the other side calling your side and your position bad evil even and so you will just start
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to slowly without even realizing move to a different position so it's kind of like in Harry Potter you have
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to have constant vigilance about your own positions and reinforcing them. Now another really important thing is
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being friends with the right people now when I say being friends with the right people I don't just mean
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conservatives there are a lot of people who are on the left who are open to having conversations and
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discussions and those people you should absolutely be friends with because those conversations are so
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important and will really help you develop your own views and your own positions but there are also people
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across the aisle who will just say you're a bad person for having a different view than I do.
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Those people are not your friends because they actually believe that because you're conservative
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you are bad and you don't have to hang around people like that because hey we all have different
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views even people on the right have different views from each other so if you are only friends
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with people who have your exact views and you're in an echo chamber you're never actually going to
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strengthen your own positions your own beliefs and so it's important to have friends who have diverse
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thoughts but they have to respect each other's opinions and if you are constantly being villainized
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by the very people who you think you can trust that's going to peer pressure you into changing your
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opinions because you want to fit in so it's really important to stay friends with the people who actually
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want to have these conversations and who aren't going to villainize you for having those opinions that are
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different from their own and I think you can have a lot of different kinds of friends you should have
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friends who are conservatives you should have friends who are liberals you just shouldn't have
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friends who think you're a bad person for being conservative at the end of the day those friendships
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don't last I had friends in college who would constantly talk about how conservatives were awful
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people and they would just throw it out because they were so comfortable saying it where I felt like
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I couldn't even mention I was a conservative because all of these friends of mine would just think I was
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evil and so I never even mentioned it and those friends truly did not last because I couldn't
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continue to be friends with them especially as I started becoming more and more open and honest about
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my views so surround yourself with people who are open to having conversations and not trying to peer
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pressure you by calling you a bad person for holding different views from theirs now there are some
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times that you're going to be stuck in a situation where maybe you're at a party or you're being introduced to
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new people and they are going to try and engage you in a conversation where they are trying to
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demonize you for having a different opinion and in those situations you need to just change the
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subject you know that they're not trying to change your mind they're just trying to make you feel guilty
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and maybe at the end of that you would change your mind and change your position because you were peer
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pressured into doing it that conversation is not going to be fruitful neither one of you is going to
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learn from the other you're not going to hear a different side you're only going to be called
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names and be called a bad person for having a conservative viewpoint you should not be in those
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conversations just change the subject walk away whatever you have to do so you can de-escalate that
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situation because if you're in a situation let's say for me if I was with work colleagues I would simply
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change the subject I couldn't leave the room I couldn't just walk out but I would just kind of subtly
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shift what we were talking about so that we wouldn't cross over into conservative politics
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and I wouldn't have to lie about my positions or just nod my head as they continue to talk about
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their views so I would just subtly change the subject do the same thing if you're in that position
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it's not going to be worth it for you to engage and you can usually recognize those kinds of
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conversations when someone is starting to use words about conservatives as a group if they're saying that
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people are bad if they're villainizing or demonizing those on the other side of the aisle instead of
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just talking about the ideas the ideas are much more interesting at the end of the day than the
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people who hold them so if you are having a conversation with someone and it's about the ideas
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you usually can have a really fruitful conversation even if it's someone who has a totally different
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view than you do but if it's somebody who is really trying to demonize the people who hold those
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ideas it's just not going to be worth it and the last thing to remember is remember why you're not
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giving in to peer pressure it is so hard when you are in a position where all of the people that you
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know care about hang out with have a different view than you do and it feels like it would just be
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easier to give in and say I don't want to be conservative anymore it's just too hard but there's a reason
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that you hold the views that you do you believe in the truth not his truth not your truth but the truth
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and you believe in values that make this country great and maybe your faith bolsters those values
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as well and those things are incredibly important and are so worth it even when it's hard even when
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you feel like you have to just keep your mouth shut because at the end of the day your conservative
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values and your conservative beliefs and your conservative ideals are going to give you so much
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more happiness in the long run and you will find that bolstering your views instead of giving into
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peer pressure when somebody calls you a bad person will also give you much more integrity you're staying
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true to what you actually believe instead of just giving up so that you're not called names and if you
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hold these conservative values for a reason you should stick to them and maintain them because you did the
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research so that you really believe those things for a good and true reason so stay strong try and
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surround yourself with people who will support you keep researching keep yourself informed so that you
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do understand all of the things that you believe and remember that you are not alone in your conservative
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views there are so many of us and we are here to support each other let me know in the comments a
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time that you've been peer pressured about your conservative views or what you've done to avoid it i'd love to
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hear thank you guys so much for watching today's video please subscribe to my channel and blog if
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