WOTMQ: Could You Possibly Be Wrong?
I had two experiences last month — very different experiences — with some people who made an intelligent conversation impossible to have. They slammed that door shut by removing the possibility of being wrong. It's at the heart of conspiracy thinking. But it finds its way into other areas of our lives as well.
Thanks again! More on the way!!!
Comments (13)
Your profile needs to have the warning "no Trumpites (or would that more properly be Trumpettes?)"
Kinda surprising, that you find time to look for a new partner... I thought, you're entirely focusing on re-learning every Eddie Van Halen guitar solo. How ist your progress, by the way?
I have now come to always start conversations with "true believers" about these closely held beliefs with the question, "What, if any, evidence would convince you that you're wrong?" If there is none, I move us on to the weather. Or sports.
Brilliant!!!
Holy Guacamole. That date of yours would be ripe for swallowing the stone-in-a-hat revelation hook, line, and stinker. Even talking to such people reminds me of Albert's (Nathan Lane's) line in "The Birdcage": "Sweetie, you're wasting your gum." Carl Sagan had their number decades ago when he observed: “If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
That’s one of my favorite Sagan quotes.
Sorry about the Match disaster! (Her loss.) What was “X”? I’m imagining all kinds of things.
I’d like to think it was her loss too. Gonna keep that narrative in mind. And x was something sexual. We’ll leave it at that. But it wasn’t anything horrible. Not even something uncommon, which made the discussion even more baffling.
Whoops. I'll post the correct video for free tomorrow. D'oh!!!
wrong video? or mixed up with Why I Mock?
Is this intentionally the Why I Mock video again?
Same old story, isn't it? Respect for people, not ideas. Not sure why it's taking so long to catch on.
Brilliant.. bro. Just brilliant. You were stunningly somehow able to voice (and enact) the exact feelings ib was experiencing. Bravo! This comment was for the Why I mock video.