tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post2201760646511805025..comments2024-03-19T07:48:54.021-06:00Comments on Gus Van Horn: Socialism Is Scary. What to Do?Gus Van Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-19416056590253477272020-06-25T11:15:50.331-06:002020-06-25T11:15:50.331-06:00Dinwar,
Something Watkins -- like his mentor Alex...Dinwar,<br /><br />Something Watkins -- like his mentor Alex Epstein -- brings up is a technique called <i>context bridging</i>. Everyone has things they know that are correct, which you can build on; things they believe that are incorrect, which you can work to correct; and things they are partly right about, that you can help them repair. <br /><br />It's easy to lose sight of this in our tribalistic culture, but persuasion is an effort to win the mind(s) of individual(s). Not everyone is as bad as their tribal leaders make them look.<br /><br />That's good to keep in mind as "the world" loses its mind.<br /><br />There is no "world" in that sense.<br /><br />GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-66662469768407628632020-06-25T10:45:02.664-06:002020-06-25T10:45:02.664-06:00The biggest issue I've seen in recent years wh...The biggest issue I've seen in recent years when it comes to convincing someone of something is what I call the Foundational Assumption of Debate: each side gets to make its own arguments. <br /><br />Take Covid-19. One side is arguing for indefinite universal house arrest. The other side is arguing that slamming the breaks on the economy is going to have wide-ranging consequences. When the first side argues with the second, the first tries to flood the argument with scientific studies about the virus--ignoring the economics arguments completely. They will never convince the advocates of re-opening the economy to support prolonged shutdowns, because those advocating the shutdowns never address the issues raised by those advocating re-opening. To put this in combat terms, the opposition to re-opening is acting like Iraq in the first Gulf War, firing wildly into the air against invisible targets and hoping to get a lucky hit (only it's worse because they've CHOSEN to refuse to see the targets). <br /><br />Yes, in this case the Left is ignoring what the Right says; I could easily find examples of the Right doing the same thing (bailouts, trade sanctions [ie, self-imposed blockades], and a few others). It's the nature of the arguments that's important. <br /><br />In order to convince someone to change their minds, the first thing you need to know is what they currently believe. That allows you to tailor your message so that it's heard and so that it's effective. Far, far too many people--including ostensible intellectuals, people who are trained to know better--simply refuse to do this. Then they wonder why they fail to convince anyone, and why politics is so tribal these days....<br /><br />The really scary thing is that this is another example of pre-Medieval mindset of our culture. Abelard and Aquinas both made this exact same point, in a time when even reading opposition to dogma was punishable by death (see Abelard's fate). Our current intellectual environment is worse than that of the Dark Ages. Dinwarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06138006602385020048noreply@blogger.com