5 ms·
Figure out who your tribe considers "the enemy" and then sneak over to the "enemy's camp" to see what they're talking about. 3 tactics, from trivial to dangerou
by mLuby 5y ago
Figure out who your tribe considers "the enemy" and then sneak over to the "enemy's camp" to see what they're talking about. 3 tactics, from trivial to dangerous:
1) Use a private or different browser, VPN, or Tor to exit your personal filter bubble, then search for news or trends and see what the algorithms serve to fresh faces.
2) US-specific example: If you're a Democrat/Republican, read the Fox News/NY Times politics or opinion section. If you know some big names on the "enemy side" go consume some of their content. It'd also be a good idea to read some news stories from outside the US; they don't have much stake in the fight and have some distance, so it's good for perspective.
3) Ask that family member (the one your other family members proudly blocked on Facebook) what their news sources are. Just a word of warning: they may take this as a sign you're "defecting" and talk your ear off, so try to come up with a way to time-limit it, like "it's for a school paper."
- jimmygrapes 5y agoI would add that when doing this recon, steelman their ideas. Try to justify them, however horrible they seem to you. Drop your guard and prejudices enough to understand why they have those ideas. You don't have to accept them in the end, but you'll never know how to make amends or talk to somebody you refuse to understand.
- pjc50 5y agoI used to do this. Over the 20 years I've been doing "discourse" on the internet. In recent years I've seen a marked collapse in the willingness of the other side to do the same - or even, in many cases, to make an argument that I could actually understand. For example, back in the days of campaigning against gay marriage there were people claiming that it would be bad for straight marriage, none of whom bothered to articulate why, and of course it's turned out that wasn't the case at all.
- dTal 5y agoI can pinpoint when I gave up on this. It was 2016. In that year I made many frustrated attempts to communicate with an ideology whose contradictions I no longer felt I understood. It was made uncomfortably and repeatedly clear to me that communication, compromise, dialog, and indeed principles were no longer on the menu - that concession of any sort was regarded as a sucker's game, and the only consistent terminal value amongst the lot of them was "liberal tears". They didn't care if I understood. They just wanted me to be unhappy. I realized then that the civil war - a culture war - had already begun.