I’m in my late 20s and I’m on the same boat. Especially when it comes to politics. People are often much more than their politics. Unless they’re in the extreme horizontals of their beliefs.

That nice barista at the coffee shop? Could be a liberal. The dude at the office who held the elevator for you? Could be conservative. That’s just the way it works

I often think that we just happen to live in very large communities that are more or less the same as they’ve been throughout the history of our entire species. It’s made me feel a lot more connected to everyone around me because they don’t feel like strangers anymore, they feel like extended family, in a way.

But I still love flipping people off, I just don’t mean much by it. Like a gesture that says ‘wtf are you doing you idiot’

Sounds like your growth is your realization that people aren’t intending to harm you. That, yes, they are just people bopping along trying to survive. That their indifference to you isn’t malice. A great life lesson.

However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t also idiots.