A recent value our country has believed in is not shaming overweight people for how they look. Whether you believe in this notion or not, I have noticed that the same people that are against body shaming typically tend to shame people for their political beliefs.  Let’s call this “mind shaming” which is ridiculing someone for what they think or how they vote.

Mind shaming is a dangerous aspect of society. People who are rude to others for saying what they believe in makes them ignorant and incompetent because they are not open minded.

Especially this election season, mind shaming has been a prominent aspect of everyday life. Both candidates are very unpopular throughout the nation, which is the root of the problem.  Especially because President-Elect Donald J. Trump has said some vulgar things, democrats become offended when people say they are voting for Trump.  I am not being biased, I have just witnessed more people supporting Trump being harassed rather than people supporting Hillary Clinton being harassed.  Either way, it is dangerous if you are attacked for saying who you support or what you believe in.

The backbone of this country is freedom of speech. Yet, if we oppress people’s viewpoints then we are indirectly taking this right away from people. People should not be afraid to say who they are supporting, what they think about certain issues in America or anything at all. It is vital that we encourage all viewpoints to be heard because it is the only way our country will progress in the right direction.

An example of how people’s viewpoints have been suppressed is the current campaign is that all the polls had Clinton ahead and The Huffington Post even predicted that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had a 98% of winning the election. While this prediction was not based on math, it still shows that many people thought Clinton had it in the bag. Although, Trump beat Clinton in the electoral college and won states that no one expected him to win, like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

How could Trump be predicted to be down so many points prior to the election in national and state polls, yet come out of top? One idea is that many people are scared to say they support Trump because of the mass criticism many news networks and liberals have placed him under. While some of these criticisms are true and need to be heard, people should still not be scared to support Trump. In the end, it’s their choice.

Mind shaming has reached a new extreme. Relationships are even ruined by differing political ideologies. This is outrageous because multiple viewpoints are what makes this country so great.  Another part of this problem is partisan divide because our parties are not willing to work together and are starting to dislike each other so much. It is a hard problem to fix but just as George Washington warned, we should not have political parties. What we experience today is exactly what he was worried about.

Just like body shaming is an idea that makes people cringe, mind shaming should fall under the same category. It should be a frightening to our country that people’s viewpoints are being silenced. Never be afraid to say what you believe in and the right step forward in encouraging people to do this by becoming open minded.