<p>I would start college in the coming months and I’m extremely worried about making friends within my major as it is mostly about political science. Since talking about politics is unavoidable, I’m worried that I’m not gonna make a lot of friends because of my political stance?</p>
<p>Is anyone here majoring in political science? If so please tell me if you have had conflict with your course mates. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance. </p>
<p>If you are a freshman, then most of your classes will not be political science at first. You make friends in your dorm, in your classes, in your clubs like anyone else. </p>
<p>As far as your political stance, I would hope that you could talk about certain stances and then talk about the data you have to back them up. You wouldn’t say “You are stupid if you don’t think that everyone should have to do X” You would say “I think everyone should have to do X and here is why. What are your thoughts?” “You don’t agree…tell me why”</p>
<p>You are at college to learn and explore and to understand others viewpoints even if you don’t agree with them.</p>
<p>It’s very possible to have friends with different political views. I’m a fairly outspoken liberal, and most of my friends do tend to have fairly liberal views. I’ve got quite a few friends that have fairly conservative views too, although not like Tea Party conservative. I don’t think I could handle that…lol</p>
<p>Unless your political views involve looking to the Nazi’s fascist regime as a moral guidepost and political benchmark, I’d say you should be just fine. Throughout life you are going to meet and work with people who have very different political views. It’s good to learn early on that these people aren’t that much different than you are. If you’re doing a political science major, one important thing to keep in mind is that you need to be able to engage in rational discourse with people from all over the political spectrum. You can engage in satisfying and insightful discussion with people who have opposing political views, and you can do it without it being an argument. There are some schools that tend to have a greater conservative population, or a greater liberal population, but there will always be a blend of both. Many schools have a Socialist club, Marxist Alliances and such. You can find people that share your political views.</p>
<p>It’s lake gaza and Israel conflict with me and some of my course mates already have tons of conflicts already. I hope it won’t advance any further </p>
<p>Always try to take the other person’s side and ask questions.</p>
<p>“Well if the Palestinians need a place to live, I get that. But how will the Israeli’s trust them?”</p>
<p>“I get that the Israeli’s don’t trust them. But this is their homeland too. Where should they go?”</p>
<p>You can have a discussion.</p>
<p>But also know when people have had enough…you can change topics</p>
<p>Sometimes people would bring up this topic and I would just say “I don’t want to talk about politics”.
People think I’m antisocial or things like that.</p>
<p>@Wilsoncw why don’t you want to talk about politics if you’re studying PoliSci? It’s one thing if its constantly talked about and you want a break, but tell people that and they will understand. “I don’t want to talk about politics” doesn’t come off well at all.</p>
<p>+1’s to everything bopper is saying. Changing the subject to something else is a good way to avoid a topic if its been talked about a lot. </p>
<p>Also, echoing and elaborating on bobber, you have to be able to discuss viewpoints from both sides, and bring supporting arguments to your stances. If you have an opinion and don’t provide any arguments with it, or provide ones that most would find inadequate, then yes it won’t come off well either. If you have a good knowledge of something and have well made arguments to support your view, I think you will find yourself getting along much better. In your major, debate can be a big part of the social aspect, and that’s good and healthy often. It’s about a bunch of interested people sharing their views and finding the best solutions via the views. It helps people grow their knowledge and opinions, and the “conflict” you are referencing hopefully shapes each person and their ideas for the better.</p>
<p>I have a BS in Political Science. One of the awesome things about it, in my experience, is that those courses are the ones where you really can have your own political opinions. Being able to discuss, debate and defend your positions is important. I had more than one class where the expectation for some papers or projects was to take the opposing view (and you really had to argue for that side). </p>
<p>I would agree a little bit with comfortablycurt but not be such so close-minded that I would not befriend someone of all sorts of political bents. Someone who argues politely and has a similar intellectual bent will be more important than someone who shares your opinion either way.</p>
<p>I’m very conservative (with the exception of a few issues) and had tons of very liberal friends. This was after meeting in the political nerd circles at my high school. You can have friends with opinions that differ from yours. Just don’t be a jerk or too standoffish. (Meaning, state your opinion, word is as strongly as you want, point out flaws in differing opinions, but don’t bash people or scream or yell or cuss debate opponents out.) </p>
<p>You also meet people outside of your classes, and if you grab coffee with someone your conversation doesn’t have to include a political debate.</p>
<p>You should look closely at why these discussions become arguments. Are the other people turning them into arguments, or are you turning them into arguments?</p>
<p>Politics can be a very heated issue. I know there have been plenty of times I’ve gotten a bit overly heated during political discussions, but I always maintain my composure and remain open to listening and considering other points of view. I don’t just see that “this person is a conservative, so I have to disagree with them.” There are a lot of people that unfortunately see things this way, and that’s a large reason for partisanship being such a huge problem here. It’s always the liberals versus the conservatives. Many of them feel that they have to adhere to the party position and disagree with the stance of the opposition regardless of the topic. That’s not a good way to debate, and it’s not a good way to grow intellectually. </p>
<p>If these debates are turning into heated arguments, remember that it takes two to argue.</p>
<p>Listen twice as much as you talk.</p>
<p>say hi?</p>
<p>I had a friend and teammate who was a Political Science major and he had more friends than anyone else I’ve ever known. He always spoke up in class and engaged in discussions. I think most political science majors respect each other even if they don’t agree with the other person’s stance. When I took my two political science classes I spoke up and said how I felt and so did pretty much everyone else and most of us became friends. I didn’t agree with a lot of what some of them would say but I would just listen and respectfully disagree. I think the key is to be respectful and not bash someone’s view on a subject.</p>