Shamelessly snagging each of the three quote highlighted in this article, because I _very_ strongly agree with all three: 1. Criticism is a privilege that you _earn_ — it shouldn’t be your opening move in an interaction… […] The notion that the only way you can critically engage with a person’s ideas is to take a shot at them, is to be openly critical — this is actually nonsense. Some of the most effective ways in which you deal with someone’s idea are to treat them completely at face value, and with an enormous amount of respect. That’s actually a faster way to engage with what they’re getting at than to lob grenades in their direction… If you’re going to hold someone to what they believe, make sure you accurately represent what they believe. 2. What we call tolerance in this country, and pat ourselves on the back for, is the lamest kind of tolerance. What we call tolerance in this country is when people who are unlike us want to be like us, and when we decide to _accept_ someone who is not like us and wants to be like us, we pat ourselves on the back… So when gays want to be like us and get married, we finally get around and say, Oh, isn’t that courageous of me, to accept gay people for finally wanting to be like us. Sorry — you don’t get points for accepting someone who wants to be just like you. You get points for accepting someone who doesn’t want to be like you — that’s where the difficulty lies. 3. I feel I change my mind all the time. And I sort of feel that’s your responsibility as a person, as a human being — to constantly be updating your positions on as many things as possible. And if you don’t contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you’re not _thinking_. […] If you create a system where you make it impossible, politically, for people to change [their] mind, then you’re in trouble.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 14:59:35 +0000
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