In the wake of wild Black Friday shoppers tearing each other apart for $200 off a smart TV at Walmart and families arguing over politics around the Thanksgiving table like the ones in the SNL skit below, I’m cautious in writing about telling people how to react to opposition, but it feels even more pressing during this time of year. It seems that around the holidays, everyone gets very vocal about their own beliefs, and unnecessarily defensive when people disagree. Whether it is a discussion over a presidential candidate, hotbed issues, or, unfortunately, political reactions to tragedies like the one in Colorado this week or Paris just a few weeks ago, everyone seems to have an opinion.

Some people might view this as a negative thing, but I appreciate the fact that people have an opinion, whether I disagree with it or not. Political apathy is an epidemic that is sweeping the United States, infecting the minds of my generation and the ones who follow us merely because technology has enabled the conflict-adverse more ways to avoid the recognition of tragedy and political discourse that has become so commonplace. But, people say, “Wouldn’t you rather people have no opinion at all, rather than one that is based on nothing?”

And I think that’s a ridiculous argument. First of all, you can teach people to properly base their opinion on something constructive, and listening to contrary opinions is one of those keys to education, but you cannot teach people to form an opinion. That instinct is something that is born within us, and is something I believe we all posses, but is crushed mid-existence by the fact that our society makes people so uncomfortable with opposition that they stop forming an opinion at all to avoid conflict. Second of all, what you define as “nothing,” which the opposition to your opinion might be based on, is fluid to your definition of what is politically “valid,” and that’s not fair at all either, because that means that only what you view as “valid” is worth forming an opinion about.

Why are we so afraid to be proved wrong? The most beautiful part of our inalienable rights in this country is the fact that we are allowed to have an opinion, and we are allowed to speak that opinion, however wrong it might be. Therefore, it is frankly ridiculous that we get defensive, and even offended when someone disagrees with us. Even if you think that someone’s opinion is morally wrong, or if you feel that it harms your own perception of your rights, you still have no right to shun people for what they believe. That is the most un-American thing a person can do in that situation, and by any standard, that is contrary to the foundation that your rights were built on.

So, the next time Aunt Mabel, sitting across the kitchen table, says that she believes she might vote for Donald Trump or raves on about how immigration is ruining this country, don’t sit there on your hands and quietly insult her in your mind. Don’t relegate her opinion to “crazy" or “ridiculous." Don’t walk away. Speak up, and speak in a calm and educated manner about your opinions. Enlighten her perception of your side. Although you may not convince her to change her mind, you will be feeding a more educated society, one where we can accept the right of the other guy to have his opinion, no matter how wrong we think it is.

And when all else fails, just turn on Adele: