You made me think (as I often do anyway) of people who are close to me, whom I love a great deal, who spout things that seem to me both repulsive and way too weird or dumb for these folks to take seriously. Siometimes, replying is impractical: passions may be too high, or I may not know enough about the particular thing in question to be sure I can refute them with grace and clarity. When I do respond, I try to acknowledge what I think they've got right, to point to the sources of what I take for facts and admit when I don't know something, and remain true to my principles in the discussion. More than once, I've found that somebody I thought was several chasms away from me politically was actually close to me in important ways.
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Date: 2010-08-30 11:06 pm (UTC)You made me think (as I often do anyway) of people who are close to me, whom I love a great deal, who spout things that seem to me both repulsive and way too weird or dumb for these folks to take seriously. Siometimes, replying is impractical: passions may be too high, or I may not know enough about the particular thing in question to be sure I can refute them with grace and clarity. When I do respond, I try to acknowledge what I think they've got right, to point to the sources of what I take for facts and admit when I don't know something, and remain true to my principles in the discussion. More than once, I've found that somebody I thought was several chasms away from me politically was actually close to me in important ways.