Where do you encounter opposing viewpoints?

[Lorizael]

Yeah, just logged out to check that very idea. Thought it might be a bug. Although it is still kind of a weird thing. For example, there's kind of an empty comment under Elok now.

[Aeson]

We can have a vote on whether to keep comments or not. I expect it will be misused profusely, but that may be it's appeal to many of us

[Jon Miller]

Examples otherwise I am inclined to believe you are saying you disagree with me therefore you are -ist or -phobe. All to many people think simply discussing a topic is -ist, etc..., or worse deliberately want to shut down conversations by using name calling.

Ignoring the worst two people in the room: (1) saying that random black people in the movie (The Game Plan) were gorillas, (2) refusing to shake my wife's hand, (3) refusing to look at or speak to my wife.

This was people my age or younger, the family members that were older than me probably were mostly mildly racist (normal for people who lived significant junks of their lives before 1980) but were welcoming and kind to my wife and daughter.

JM
(as far as I could tell they all liked the Rock still, he must have light enough skin for them (considering he has black and Polynesian ancestors))

(at 36 I am not young anymore)

[N35t0r]

RE: OP, Mirrors, usually.

[Ben Kenobi]

Inspired by a podcast I listened to recently. Do you most often get opposing viewpoints from family or friends, at work, online (FB, comment sections, blogs)? What fraction of the information you encounter is oppositional in this way? Do you seek out opposing points of view? How do you usually deal with them?

Lets see. Here, at work, in the class, and with my family. I'd say anywhere from 70-80 percent of the information I get on a daily basis is 'oppositional'. I guess I do because I come here. Most of it is rubbish, but occasionally I have good discussions with people.

[Ben Kenobi]

Today I actually had one of those discussions with disagreements with a source that is very valuable to you. We had a discussion over TPP. We had a disagreement over opening trade, where he argued that it was possible to 'liberalize' evil regimes by trading with them. I asked him about Rhodesia and the boycotts of apartheid. Best discussion I've had in awhile.

[Elok]

In other glitch news, when I typed that comment I had to highlight it to see the words--the font was white or some such. Then when I went to edit my ignore list, the suggestions box that pops up was likewise transparent. Both are new--at least, the ignore one is, I don't know about comments since I just gained the ability to enter them. Weird.

Re: OP, I find it helps to tell myself that people who believe weird/horrible things are not necessarily bad people. They're more like good people who were raised in, or got sucked in by, a cult. And it's typically a fairly benign cult that doesn't require them to poison anybody, mutilate rabbits, etc. They're apparently happy in their cult, and they identify with it enough that they'd be terribly upset if I tried to convince them it was wrong, so it's best not to meddle. I can still be their friend without believing their crazy bull****. Love the cultist, hate the cult.

[Lorizael]

Re: OP, I find it helps to tell myself that people who believe weird/horrible things are not necessarily bad people. They're more like good people who were raised in, or got sucked in by, a cult. And it's typically a fairly benign cult that doesn't require them to poison anybody, mutilate rabbits, etc. They're apparently happy in their cult, and they identify with it enough that they'd be terribly upset if I tried to convince them it was wrong, so it's best not to meddle. I can still be their friend without believing their crazy bull****. Love the cultist, hate the cult.

Mostly agree with this attitude. But I think we're basically all cultists who are more or less blind to what cult we were raised in. That's just how humans operate, though, so thinking that you've broken free of your cult and finally see the world as it really is just means you're deluding yourself in a new way. Be aware of the bias of your cult and open to the interesting viewpoints that arise in different cults, but never fool yourself into thinking you're the one who sees clearly. I mean, that is until we upload ourselves to computers and upgrade our rationality from bounded to perfect.

[Jon Miller]

Why would computers be perfect? They would be bounded by their own incomplete rules/etc.

BTW, a neat trick is to learn a language after age 12 and then do your rational thinking in it. See https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...eign-language/ and other articles.

JM

[Lorizael]

Why would computers be perfect? They would be bounded by their own incomplete rules/etc.

It's a joke that's funny because I'm insane. But I do think we should explore the space of possible minds (via AI, genetic engineering, etc.) for even more perspectives on the universe.

[Egbert]

Internet forums, definitely.

Yes, yes.

The internet is a good place to see opposing viewpoints without need to engage in pointless debates.

Facts are often useless for changing viewpoints particularly when people cling to a belief for emotional reasons. And when people have a viewpoint because everyone else does. (And that is why I can't see the point of arguing with people on the Internet).