Everyone should read “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx, whether you agree with him or not. Everyone should read “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith, whether you agree with him or not. This kind of diversity of thought is very important, and on college campuses especially one as big as NC State students should take the time to engage in different political schools of thought.

Let’s be real — when are you ever otherwise going to have a socialist, a Republican, a Democrat and an anarchist share the same space? While that premise seems like a set up for a good joke, it does highlight how, in college, you can meet people different from you. Moreover, people should take the time to engage with people who think fundamentally differently from themselves. 

Currently, America is in a political binary system, otherwise known as a two-party system, where only two types of ideologies are validated. Either you’re left-inclined or right-inclined, two choices despite all the various political schools of thought out there. Politics in America is treated as a binary choice either for or against, pro or anti, with little distinction being made.

That is why I hate the “both sides” rhetoric spouted out in today’s political discourse; political thought is a spectrum of thoughts and not just a binary. I blame Republicans and Democrats — the two-party system has not only monopolized what type of candidates get placed into political positions, but they have also monopolized the political imagination of the American people. The two parties control what are considered to be politically acceptable ideas, making people imagine themselves on a binary spectrum, or on “two sides” or “both sides,” which, like the founders of America predicted, has to lead to many conflicts.

Political ideas that fall outside of the of the norm are treated with so much suspicion and downright disdain that it is hard to have real political discourse these days. This is not to be blamed, however, on what people call “political correctness.” 

Too often, people — mostly conservatives — blame the fact that people have little tolerance for disrespect of their identity these days as a way to shut down all political discourse. Honestly, a discussion on the racial or gender implications of American economic policy should not lead to disrespect; how you feel about someone’s race should not go above their real-life lived experience. 

For example, when speaking about the systemic issues of police brutality, many conservatives veer to someone’s blackness, because of black-on-black crime stats somehow justify law enforcement’s use of lethal force on a black person. This false equivalence leads to a shutdown of an actual dialogue on the issue of police brutality. Instead of discussing policies and procedures — you know, actual political discussion — people are having to defend their race.

Speaking of economics, the idea of capitalism is a perfect example of the type of monopoly the two-party system holds. Both endorse capitalism, albeit in different ways, and are not competing at the polls with different economic schools of thought, but rather with the very same ideas. 

However, if you say you’re a socialist, people bring up the worst examples of socialism, such as the tragedy that was Soviet Russia under Stalin. However, using this same circular logic of, “Bad things happen under this economic school of ideas, therefore, said ideology is invalid,” one can argue that the tragedies of European colonialism and the Atlantic slave trade invalidate capitalism.  

Let it be clear that I am not advocating for socialism, or going against capitalism, but rather I’m highlighting a disparity in how different ideas are treated, thereby creating the sense that there is only one school of thought that is correct, which leads to less diversity of thought. College should be a playground of ideas where people should be able to theorize or “play” with different views. We should all go on the swings of socialism, the slide of capitalism and the teeter-totter of libertarianism.

What I want to hit home for the reader is to take this time to be politically active, not just at the voting booth — which is, by the way — very important, but to also educate oneself about different political ideas. People should collectively broaden their political imaginations. I encourage all students to engage with different political groups on campus to expand their political thoughts.

An insightful quote by Aristotle that left a significant impact on me sums up my argument perfectly, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”