To tack on to this, a thing my partner taught me: a shortcut to calling someone stupid is calling something they love stupid.

Trying to understand why they like that thing is a more connective and productive path. Maybe at the end of it you end up more informed and still don’t like the thing, but for me often times it turned a knee jerk “that thing is dumb” into a thing I love with people who also love that thing. What a great life hack.