I recently had one of my sons question my belief that all people should have self determination. I was so shocked that it shook me. My family is built on diversity, non conformity and having a belief in the right to self determination. I don’t know what happened. I could not steer him from this course as he was full of talking points clearly given to him from somewhere designed to reinforce the reality he has gotten sucked into. I spent so many years attempting to inculcate critical thinking, and the clearly smartest of my children has walked another path.
It makes me sad.
I am not going to stop trying.
This heartens me.
The problem with some smart people is that they learn that “facts don’t care about your feelings” and memorize a lot of facts that tell a coherent story, think Ben Shapiro. What they either choose to ignore or intentionally leave out is the context surrounding those otherwise disparate data points. These are your straight A, type A students that lack any ability to go below superficial knowledge but have a shit-ton of trivial knowledge at their finger tips.
The best way to have a conversation is to deconstruct one of their points and explain that Gish Gallop is an immoral method of debate and they should check their own facts before parroting their favorite YouTuber/Podcaster. Context is important, feelings are an extension of acting humane, and humanity should care about taking care of one another.
I suppose a lot of why I haven’t truly tried to deconstruct his flimsy arguments is because I’m a big softie and I don’t want to hurt his feelings.
Oh that would damage me. All the years of work that go into keeping them open minded and forging critical thinking will pay dividends eventually though. I hope you’re doing ok.
Edit: I’m trying to picture that happening in our house and what comes to mind is the other kids ripping the piss out of a position like that. We call our dinner table “The Forge” mostly for fun / slagging but also for challenging nonsense that might arise. We’ve a lot of kids though.
Siblings might be an avenue to explore is the crux of my point.
Isn’t that what self-determination and non-conformity is about?
For non-American folks a VPN works.
