Taboo

Close friends are gathered around a fire pit in one's backyard on a Friday night. Throughout the week each individual has had their share of stress from the previous five working days. This Friday night is a night to relax around the fire with good friends, share stories, have a few adult beverages and make plans for future adventures.
This is a group of people who live to explore the world and most of them are preparing themselves for a trip to seven countries in twenty-one days. With the exception of one member of the fire gathering, the only language spoken is American. Somehow the subject is turned to America and one states, “If you can’t speak our language, you do not deserve to live here.” Uh-Oh! Someone has introduced a topic of taboo into the conversation.
This statement, of course, sets the scene for another member to chime in with, “How do you think your ancestors arrived here? Do you think your Great-Great Grandfather Lombardi knew how to speak American when he arrived to this country?” These two sentences started the argument and it was on a roll each coming back with a comment more unrealistic than the last until they were so heated one of them had to walk away.
Everyone knows there are many taboo topics which should not be discussed among a diverse group of people, especially, if they are good friends. Politics is one of these topics.
Fortunately, the situation was diffused but had these two not been such good friends or had there been more drinks had, it could have gotten ugly.
Why are these topics so controversial? Each of us is entitled to our own opinions and beliefs. Not one of us has a thought process that is wrong, just different. 
Regarding Politics and Religion our differences can be related to our social background, up bringing and even how our brain processes information. 
Liberals tend to tolerate the gray areas of life more than conservatives. Sorry, I am not generalizing, I read an article in the journal "Nature Neuroscience" outlining an experiment conducted by both NYU and UCLA that provides strong evidence of this statement. 
A person who is left brain dominant processes information in the following ways: 
Linearly - step by step in logical progression with detail
Sequentially - in order first to last 
Symbolically - with the use of symbols, letters, words, math
Logically - weighing options carefully, using logic to solve problems
Verbally - using thoughts and ideas through words to process information
Realistically - Bases thoughts on reality, tending to focus on rules and regulations. 


A person who is right brain dominant processes information in the following ways: 
Holistically - tend to see the big picture first not detail focused
Randomly - typically jump from one task to another without priority
Concretely - process things that can be seen, touched, "real" objects
Intuitively - makes choices that "feel" right 
Non-verbally - thoughts are based on illustrations rather than words
Fantasy oriented - creatively, less focused on rules and regulations. 


Regardless of how your brain processes information, what your political beliefs are or how you were brought up, the next time someone brings a taboo topic into conversation, don't judge. Their brain simply works differently than yours.