Much of our society has been dumbed down below the level where they can have a friendly, civil, animated discussion with someone holding significantly different views from their own.
Quite intelligent people with wonderful potential cannot speak to me because I don’t share their faith in new cloud forms, benevolent vaccines, trustworthy big government and so forth.
What is it? What happened to the positive art of arguing?
Worse, how did fear of divergent views become normal?
Debate has a long history in advanced societies. Participants work to craft compelling explanations for their points of view. Audiences as well as the debaters have their views challenged; have to work through the logic and evidence supporting their convictions.
These are good things. They should be embraced. Yet…
“Few things are more irritating than when someone who
is wrong is also very effective in making his point.”
— Mark Twain
[Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910)
I understand the psychological defense mechanism of denial. I do try to be gentle. Look up. Observe. One jet has no visible trail. Watch that other one. Don’t concern yourself with who or why, just observe. Trust your eyes and open your mind to the possibility something odd is going on here.
To steer clear of troubling information like that in the movie VAXXED is okay, but to completely avoid contact with people who don’t share your faith in the pharmaceutical companies is childish. Hiding in your blanket fort is not for grownups.
The safe spaces, monoculture, shouting down differing views, physical assaults of intellectual enemies, and in particular the ruling elite funding of this cultural degradation are sad to me, but worse is they are invisible to the victims.
Heck, even krill swim away from the crowd when it is threatened.
Unfortunately, the snowflake crowd sees none of the threats and very definitely does not want to hear from anyone who does.
