We're talking, contextually, about two people who are probably very liberal as measured on very many axes.
Nioya wrote:Well there’s a guy at the UU church I go to sometimes. He’s a friend of a friend and we talk. We tried going out and having lunch. He tried talking to me about this new book he got and he explained it in terms of crazy alt right theories. And with everything he said, he would reference some other strange thinker he had read about and explained some strange theory he learned from that guy. Everything.
Please name the "strange thinker" and "new book." I'm curious.
And on the way home, we got into a big huge argument about global warming and he thought it was basically just a Chinese conspiracy theory. We argued about this for approximately 20 minutes. He even got defensive like “well you can call this a conspiracy theory but that’s just an ad hominem......” Then I tried using some metaphor comparing the Paris climate accords to the Geneva convention.
OK now that wasn’t what made me want to stop speaking to the guy. But then he said he tried reading macintyre but he found it boring. Then I thought “OK fuck this guy.” I’m never speaking to him again.
The fact that he would be so suspicious about such a basic fact and get defensive at any pushback is ridiculous. And at a certain point people make things up so they don’t have to believe things they don’t want to hear, and it’s a real sign of bad character. This guy is one such example. That’s why I don’t speak to them. But also, he had read a bunch of nonsense and fringe theories and could explain all in such articulate terms, but he sneered at actual philosophical genius. I’ll never speak to him again.
Now, we all have issues that get us really riled up. We can disagree about the death penalty or family leave, but you probably have one issue that infuriates you if someone says the wrong thing about it. And I think that’s OK, because believing a certain thing can be a real reflection of their character or be deeply disrespectful. What issue infuriates you the most?
Given that the Chinese are one of the biggest contributors to global warming at the moment - and likely to face escalating international pressure to curb carbon emissions if denialism gets the brakes put on - the Chinese don't really stand to gain if people start taking global warming very seriously - but I think all that's aside from the point.
Look. I'm staunchly environmentalist. As a kid, I would save some of my allowance and donate it to environmental organizations - Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund. Global warming is a terrifying catastrophe in progress.
That said, I think you made a mistake. He opened up to you about stuff he is probably not very forthright in talking about with people from a liberal context, you responded by deciding you're going to ostracize him and "never speak to him again." Friends can disagree about important issues in the world at least occasionally. I have some friends - and some cordial acquaintances I treat civilly - who are very wrong about some things. It's okay, and sometimes, years later, someone I used to spend time with comes up to me and tells me that I changed their mind about something important.
You don't effect positive social change by ostracizing people who engage in wrongthink.
