Honestly, after your reading youre examples, it seems like things are worse today.

25 people were killed in the Salem witch trials. That is about the same number of unarmed black people killed by police every year.

And in your other example, 5 million people were killed in 154 years. In the post 9/11 Middle East wars, there were about 1 million people killed in 20 years. There were 100,000+ civilian deaths in Iraq which was the result of misleading WMD lies. So a lot of death from a “wrong” messenger in modern days too.

Yep. If you can get in the habit of asking questions, listening, making a comment, and then asking follow up or tangential questions you’ll be in good shape.

Places. Where people grew up, where they have traveled, where they have lived. Maybe even where they would want to go. This leads to other topics and lets you talk about something not too personal to start.

Are there maps like this for other part of the world? I’d imagine Europe has a much lower rate of car commuting.