The thing is, even if you take as a given that someone's idea is inherently bad, criticizing them for it will accomplish less than nothing. This is perhaps mor

The thing is, even if you take as a given that someone's idea is inherently bad, criticizing them for it will accomplish less than nothing. This is perhaps more clear than ever in the world today. Only by actually listening to a person, and treating them as a person worthy of respect, can you have any chance of having a meaningful dialogue, and perhaps, in some cases, allowing them to change their opinion. (Also of course in some cases you may find yourself reconsidering your own opinion, or recognizing some new nuance you had previously disregarded, or similar.) I actually had a conversation kind of like this with my Dad recently. We tend to agree on most things, but we were discussing a question from the political compass[1] - one of the few we disagreed strongly on. It asked, essentially, whether a person should be required to work, if able, in order to receive support from society. Our initial positions were pretty strongly opposite, and we were both surprised by the other's thoughts. We each sort of explained our thinking, and listened to the other's. I understood where he was coming from, but still disagreed with his conclusions, and that's where we left it. The next day he called me up and said that he'd been thinking a lot about what I'd said, and that he'd come to change his opinion nearly 180 degrees. What's funny was that I'd been thinking about the conversation too, and had actually moderated my opinion a bit too (although not as much), and came to agree with a couple of his points. It was really cool, because neither of us changed the other's mind; we changed our own minds after the fact. Now sure, we have a good relationship to begin with, and were having a good-natured discussion. It's going to be more difficult when you vehemently disagree with someone about nearly everything. But at least by listening it's possible that you'll accomplish something. [1] https://www.politicalcompass.org/ https://www.politicalcompass.org/