Is Exposure to People Different From You Good?

[Khaza-R]

Absolutely.

You don't need to agree with every person you meet but at least exposure will make you less ignorant.

[Daedius]

I ain't really going to relate to someone that doesn't have the same interests as me. Whom they are is completely irrelevant.

[Saucexorzski]

Not really. I am not interesting in knowing most humans and spend most of my time working or playing games on the internet. About all i can tolerate is my a small group of gamers for DnD and my family. I have less friends for sure, but the ones i got are all life long, near kin and when we meet up its as if we never parted. It's not that i think different folks are bad or something, well no more than any other human, its just, well im fucking weird and i dislike making others uncomfortable in person.

[Itori]

When it comes to people I honestly can't stand to be around others that sound stupid or do stupid things, and when im gaming it's the same, I don't care what race, religion or if the person looks like he's from the blue man group, and please don't let me get in groups with kids, when I hear a kid talk in overwatch, or apex, i'm hitting that mute button quick. It's always 1 of 2 things with kids, arrogant exaggeration about their trash skills, or I hear prepubescent trash talk about someones mom.

[Halyon]

This. The old saying," bad company corrupts good morals" comes to mind.

Only if your will is weak.

[Saucexorzski]

Only if your will is weak.

How strong is your will? can you measure it?

[mickybrighteyes]

depends on numerous variables.

Imagine it like handling materials and how those materials react to one another. Items of vastly different temperatures/pressures will just not really benefit from being introduced to one another in every example. More similar items react just fine when mingled with relatively similar things...

basically, for people, there needs to be some common ground that every party involved in actually cares about and is willing to work with or it's just a waste of time. Like working the same job, sharing a common interest, or some overarching goal that the parties involved actually care about... if that isn't present it's like introducing a variable into an equation where it is no longer stable.

[Reaper0329]

I think it's good to have exposure to thoughts, experiences, and backgrounds different from your own. Isolating yourself in an echo chamber breeds ignorance. I don't think it's entirely necessary one adopt the beliefs of different people, but it helps understand opposing viewpoints or ways of doing things.

[Airlick]

It's good, you can genuinely learn and enrich yourself if you get to meet people with completely different views on certain aspects of life from your own. Of course, you can also end up being all the more entrenched in your own position by listening to opinions that are drastically different from yours, but at least you can hear out the other side's argument. I think this is something you can rarely do on the Internet, since you'll always get trolls and people getting triggered for no reason and the discussions then turn into flamewars, while IRL people are usually more chilled and more likely to respect other people, even if they don't agree with them. We had a couple of hours long conversation about homosexuality in our dorm last week, with a Ukrainian girl, a Kameroon guy, an Italian guy and a girl, 1 Uzbek and myself. The girls were fully acceptant, me and the Italian guy had a "live and let live" stance, and the other guys argued gays should be ostracized, at the very least. Even with our views being completely different and everyone coming from a couple of different cultures, noone got triggered, noone disrespected anyone else, it was just a normal, if heated, conversation. Can't imagine having that on the Internet.

[Reaper0329]

Ignorance in the first response. Shocking.

I dunno that I would call that ignorance per se. You can read my post and get where I stand on the matter. But by the same token, I don't think I'd be a hypocrite in saying that despite feeling as I do on the matter, I wouldn't be crazy about sitting down and having a beer with a member of the Aryan Brotherhood or Westboro Baptist Church.

People have the right to have whatever ideas they want, no matter how ridiculous. Doesn't mean, however, that all ideas are worth entertaining purely by virtue of being held, particularly when they're so extreme as to be counter to any civilized society.

[cronotose]

Depends on the differences in question. Exposure to different tastes in art? Great. Exposure to murderers, less great.

[Reaper0329]

And how is ignorance of the full spectrum of people beneficial? Exposure doesn’t require friendship.

Well no, certainly not. But I think exposure in a proper sense is more than just "I am aware these exist." Having a beer is perhaps a poor analogy, granted, but I wouldn't exactly spend an afternoon reading WBC literature either to "broaden my horizons."

[cronotose]

And how is ignorance of the full spectrum of people beneficial? Exposure doesn’t require friendship.

Ignorance is superior to quite a lot of outcomes. Many forms of evil are enticing, seductive, corrupting. You don't know when you're born what your own kryptonite is. On paper, in a world with perfect people, I would agree with you. Humans aren't perfect though, and most people will find exposure to evil to corrupt them in one way or another.

[Donald Hellscream]

To me? Makes no difference because I am really good at blocking out stuff that either doesn't interest me or that I don't want to listen to so even if I happen to be in a game with a bunch of mouthbreathing cavemen I just pretend they aren't there.

But generally it is good to have a nuanced view of the world, even being exposed to horrible shit can be of use.

[arandomuser]

no, but should you form a government to systemitically exterminate people different than you like ethno statist do? Also no.

Easy conversation

[cronotose]

Ignorance is the basis for most of the harmful ideologies...

mmmkay? Do you think this is a statement disagreeing with me? I'd be interested in hearing how that's the case. All I stated was that, without specification, some forms of ignorance are better than some alternative outcomes. For example, someone who would become a hopeless alcoholic is better off living in ignorance of what alcohol is like. Any conflicting example you could come up with isn't a contradiction because I stated nothing as an absolute.

Though, just the same, I'd wager at least 50%, probably 100% of the ideologies you think of as the most harmful aren't remotely ignorant. They just disagree with you.

[Sezh]

Depends on how much. For instance:
Is it good to hang out with a couple of nazis for a day and try to understand them? Yes.
Is it good to become their friend, hang out with them every day and let them affect you? No.

[Grimbold21]

This is about physical difference isn't it?

[CritFromAfar]

Avoiding people online is pretty easy because all I have to do is go do something away from the internet and I'm fine. I don't even have to put people on ignore.

So, yes, exposure to different people is good. It helps to give a better understanding of the different types of people, being around negative people isn't, though. It's still tolerable, but I generally don't choose to be around people like that.

[Halyon]

How strong is your will? can you measure it?

Depends how many opinions you sway to without good reasoning/evidence. It's a bit abstract, sure, but I still think one shouldn't live in an echo-chamber and never challenge convictions.