Asklemmy

Food. I work with a pretty diverse bunch of people from all different places and we always end up talking about food. What we ate recently, what we're having for dinner, what someone made that surprised us, what we ate at recent functions, what our favourite childhood foods were, something new we tried recently.. it goes on and on as an endlessly varied topic. It really does seem to be a great unifier of people. I never ever get sick of talking about food!

Unfortunately, the best way to bring angry people together is a good scapegoat.

I guess the answer depends a lot on how big your scope is. For any given topic, you will find people disagreeing if you look hard or long enough. And simultaneously, almost any topic can be a source of unity for a group of people, if your scope is small enough.

I thought protecting our livelihoods, on which we depend with our very lifes, should be a clear and uncontroversial unifier. But apparently climate change and mass extinction are controversial topics for some people. While at the same time, these topics create some very tight knit communities for other people.

But maybe you are looking for answers like: Music, dancing, sports, humor, shared values, shared experiences.

I'm sensitive to rejection so both in person and online I try to be agreeable and also find common ground with people. If someone's stressed out at work and takes it out on me I tend to give them a bit of time to cool down then come and apologise and that seems to go a long way. It may seem silly but I think people refuse to apologise cause they don't feel they're in the wrong but I find it calms people down quickly and then I can bring up my viewpoint highlighting that it's just how I view things and that doesn't make their view any less legit.