That's good advice and I personally do try to do that as much as I can. But I'd freely admit that I'm not perfect at it and I'm sure you'd admit the same if asked to.

I find it interesting and enlightening to actively seek open conversation with people I disagree with and even if I don't change my position, it at least helps me understand why a person would hold a different one.

Something that happens way too often right now (as you have also pointed out in your post) is that people are too set in their ways and often view people holding different positions from them as intellectually inferior or deficient. While we all vary in our abilities to reason, argue, question, think and assess evidence, most people do have reasons for holding the positions they are holding and talking to them helps view them as regular people with regular thoughts instead of as imbeciles. Demonizing disagreement is divisive and unproductive and we see it happen alongside with the consequences more and more each day.