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> I don't need someone spouting insane conspiracy theories to me Perhaps, but it may also help that person realize there are normal people in real life who don

> I don't need someone spouting insane conspiracy theories to me Perhaps, but it may also help that person realize there are normal people in real life who don't share those ideas, despite being told that anyone they disagree with is a horrible person.

s73v3r_ 8y ago
Perhaps, but that's not my job. I value my sanity too much to try and get them to understand those things are bunk.
magduf 8y ago
This is just like spending a bunch of time with religious zealots trying to convince them their religion is wrong. You're wasting your time, and you're just going to create more conflict. I have one Trump supporter in my social circle and when conversations veer that way with her it's never productive so I completely avoid it. The bottom line is you cannot use logic to convince people their religious beliefs are wrong. Most rational people already know this about religions and religious people, the problem is they don't realize that right-wing politics (or any extremist politics for that matter) is also a religion. Now before you try to argue that this only applies to the extremists, the problem in this country is that the entire right wing in this country is extremist. The only non-extremist position in this country is the mainstream Democratic party, which is basically center-right. The Republicans have gone full-on hard-right, so there's just no reasoning with anyone that buys into that stuff.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > The bottom line is you cannot use logic to convince people their religious beliefs are wrong. You can, but only if they are peripheral rather than fundamental beliefs, and your chain of logic starts with their fundamental beliefs. Well, at least as much as you can use logic to convince anyone of anything. The problem (well, a problem) is that you can't easily discern, from the outside, a peripheral belief that depends on fundamental beliefs from a fundamental belief which is rationalized in terms of other fundamental beliefs (though circularity of support between beliefs is a pretty good sign that all are fundamental and the support is mere rationalization.)

s73v3r_ 8y ago

Perhaps, but that's not my job. I value my sanity too much to try and get them to understand those things are bunk.

magduf 8y ago

This is just like spending a bunch of time with religious zealots trying to convince them their religion is wrong. You're wasting your time, and you're just going to create more conflict. I have one Trump supporter in my social circle and when conversations veer that way with her it's never productive so I completely avoid it. The bottom line is you cannot use logic to convince people their religious beliefs are wrong. Most rational people already know this about religions and religious people, the problem is they don't realize that right-wing politics (or any extremist politics for that matter) is also a religion. Now before you try to argue that this only applies to the extremists, the problem in this country is that the entire right wing in this country is extremist. The only non-extremist position in this country is the mainstream Democratic party, which is basically center-right. The Republicans have gone full-on hard-right, so there's just no reasoning with anyone that buys into that stuff.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> The bottom line is you cannot use logic to convince people their religious beliefs are wrong. You can, but only if they are peripheral rather than fundamental beliefs, and your chain of logic starts with their fundamental beliefs. Well, at least as much as you can use logic to convince anyone of anything. The problem (well, a problem) is that you can't easily discern, from the outside, a peripheral belief that depends on fundamental beliefs from a fundamental belief which is rationalized in terms of other fundamental beliefs (though circularity of support between beliefs is a pretty good sign that all are fundamental and the support is mere rationalization.)