The backdrop of this column is important. Before getting into the exchange that brought us here, I want to quickly talk about the data that made its way to my inbox hours before hitting publish.

According to new Pew data, 45% of Americans say they’d choose to live in the past if they could. Only 14% say they’d choose the future. That matters, because how people feel about the past shapes how they interpret the present.

For decades, researchers have found the same pattern. Nostalgia pushes people to believe life used to be fairer, simpler, and more earned. When that belief hardens, the economic pressures of the day stop looking structural and feel moral.

I was reminded of that recently through a reader exchange that began as a disagreement about housing and ended as something else entirely.

I’ve spent a lot of time writing about why people should engage with those they disagree. Especially now, when politics feels so polarized. When the topic is local government, your own hometown, and the services your property taxes actually pay for, that conversation matters a lot.

That’s why I usually respond when someone writes in about a column. Significant disagreement is rare, but when it happens, I’m pretty curious. I know not everyone is going to agree. But I’m usually intrigued to know why or how they got there.

Those exchanges tend to sharpen my thinking. However, this one didn’t.

It slid quickly into the familiar dynamics that have hardened our all-or-nothing politics. It was confrontational. Less about sharing information, more about imposing a worldview. And once the numbers entered the conversation, the discussion stopped moving at all.

I’ve written a lot about housing. It’s an issue I care a lot about, one I work on outside of my day job, and a challenge........

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