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My oldest son has been talking to me asking how to talk to people that have very different views on things. I told him, most people aren't interested in challenging their assumptions. They just parrot what they have heard. It is rare that most people have ever really talked to someone they disagree with from the perspective of learning why they disagree.
I ask questions and if they open the door by asking me a question now I can start a dialogue. Most of the time people stop there. They don't really care to hear good arguments. They would rather have straw man arguments.
The few times I have met an open communist I have enjoyed the conversation because I asked all the questions. Found some common ground. And usually their definitions are way different so if I had not asked questions we would be talking past one another.
A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.
~ Proverbs 18:2
Supposedly, there was a conversation between Mises and some communist philosopher where they realized by the end that they believed very similar things once they sorted through their linguistic differences and let each other add the caveats and nuances they each believed to be important.
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I suspect that this is much more true than people realize. Our positions are a lot closer than it's often perceived, simply because of the words we use, and what topics we choose to prioritize talking about.
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It doesn't take too many tweaks to get from "From each according to their ability. To each according to their need." to specialization and consumer sovereignty.
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52 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 2h
Honestly. These people I have talked to have the same disdain for the post war liberals as many of us. As well as the Neocons.
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 3h
That's interesting. Never heard of this.
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97 sats \ 1 reply \ @siggy47 3h
That's my experience too. Lately I'd rather try to have a civil conversation with people who disagree with me than finish sentences of a member of my tribe. It gets boring.
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36 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 3h
It is boring. I hate talking about the "latest" thing unless it is pointing to a base topic.
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