Thread by @DefenderOfBasic

Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2024-03-22

“Why bother arguing about politics? nobody ever changes their mind!” all my friends keep saying this but damnit it’s literally objectively not true. please stop repeating this.

I have a process for how to change anybody’s mind about anything. Here it is:

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2024-03-22

How to change anybody’s mind about anything:

- Understand the territory

- Understand their map

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- Find insightful examples of their map not matching the territory that they know

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2024-03-22

I used to skip the “emotionally safe” part. And I got very confusing results. Sometimes people change their minds, sometimes it backfires and it’s worse.

Nobody is going to change their mind if it is not emotionally safe to do so, and that is NOT irrational

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2024-03-22

I’m not talking about bruising egos or whatever (although that is a factor). I’m talking about: if changing your mind on issue X is going to reframe you from “good person” to “bad person”, in your mind, and in your loved one’s minds. Then it’s a terrible idea to change your mind

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2024-03-22

This is what actually makes this hard. I can’t make it emotionally safe for people to change their minds on the internet. But I can do:

(1) Do this for my friends

(2) on the internet, I can detect this, and not push them. I focus on the ones who feel this safety

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2024-03-22

Proof:

(If you have a story of how you change ideologically fundamentally, please write it and share what you think led to this change! I’ve been working on my own too but could use the extra motivation)

2024-03-22

Co-sign - my ideological transition only happened because those ideas were actively challenged by friends and online spaces. It isn’t hopeless, as exhausting as ignorance may seem in the moment. x.com/DefenderOfBasi…

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2024-03-22

See also this reminder when arguing on twitter:

2024-03-06

I wish people arguing on Twitter remembered that 100x more people read the exchange than the people involved in it.

Don’t say: “you’re dumb, not worth arguing with”. Just explain why they’re wrong. It doesn’t matter if they won’t get it. Address the audience, not them

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Defender @DefenderOfBasic 2024-03-28

This interaction made my day. This really can be a wonderful place where people understand each other with nuance if we want it to be!

(just meet people where they are, stop banging your head against the walls of ideology)