“Hello, my name is Naveen and I’m french Canadian.“

Also known as: Let’s shake hands because I’m pleasant!

“Hello, my name is Naveen and, while I live in Quebec, I highly disagree with most of its laws and therefor don’t believe in Quebec’s independence ever achieving any good for this country. Also, as most Canadians, I’m an atheist who believes science has all the answers we need as human beings. And here’s the thing; I still believe in ghosts.“

Okay, now I’m really curious as to who closed this page with the statements I just made and also am not looking forward to the crazy political/religious debate that this is going to create.

Someone told me once that we have freedom of speech. Oh, I know for a fact that we do. What we don’t have is freedom of avoiding all the debates following this speech, because most people don’t know how to discuss.

I’m making this post for a few reasons; to help people create a friendly environment within their guilds is one of them. Another one is because I found that when I speak about this with certain people, I can’t discuss without being interrupted. That’s awesome, right?

So here’s the thing; We all have our beliefs, we all have political parties we trust should be leading. Now, let me tell you a secret: it’s possible to have a mature, respectful and friendly conversation about it.

GASP. I KNOW. IT’S CRAZY!

One thing you should know about my guild; it’s fun, it’s drama-less and if there’s anything, everyone know that I have an open door policy and that I won’t be biased about anything. I’m a mother IRL and I find that most of the mommy skills I naturally have, I sometimes apply in guild to keep everyone at peace. But it’s working! It happens very rarely, but I do have to be Mommy Naveen sometimes.

That being said; here’s why I ask everyone to debate their political and religious views in private. Want to have a discussion? That’s fine with me! Want to debate? Not in the guild. It’s happened before, during the Obama/Mitt Romney thing. I’d like to point out that I’m not an “american” but that somehow everyone around the world was involved by those debates. Including some of my guildies, two of which I am good friends with. These two friends had very different outlooks concerning this debate and one of these friends was a little on the defensive when it came to his views. A little too much.

What did it do? It drove them apart and put me in an awkward position. Now, one of them doesn’t log in as often and I terribly miss that person. All because of hurtful words and the fact that it wasn’t a discussion, but clearly a “If you don’t believe me, then you’re wrong and you should feel bad” situation.

I have political and religious discussions from time to time, but they remain discussions. I listen to the other person. And in turn, this other person listens to me when they’re done explaining their views. And it’s super interesting! But to be told that you’re wrong, you’re self-centred, you don’t know jack… Clearly that’s not the way to go. And most people tend to forget that others have feelings, beliefs, that they are different individuals around the world.

“What do you believe in?”

“I believe in Jesus Christ and let me tell you why in a friendly, mature and respectful manner…”

“That was interesting! I’m actually an atheist, but I understand your point of view. I’m glad we could have this nice conversation together.”

“Me too. Wanna go run a dungeon?”

“Heck yeah!”

— See what I did there? People have to understand that others may believe in different things. They may trust in a certain political party. One thing they tend to forget, is that everyone’s got a heart, everyone’s got feelings and everyone enjoy a nice, friendly conversation between friends.

Now go out there and be friendly and mature!