How I decide on the issues before the world:
I don’t listen to what “everybody” is saying. Regardless of which “everybody” one might name.
I avoid group think.
I watch my news sources with a hyper-critical eye. And then I read and watch as much as possible. I seek out the opinions of those closer to the problem, but don’t take what they say as gospel. Just as a good jumping off point.
Then comes the hard work. I apply logic. I seek fallacies. If there is a he said-she said situation I carefully asses each side. I look for the lie.
I have been on the left all my life, starting as a precocious pre-teen, glued to the 1968 Chicago Convention on the radio.
But I come to my conclusions organically, using the tools outlined above. And, for a very long time the position I ended up with and the official progressive position were one and the same.
Until it wasn’t.
I am open to having my mind changed when someone I disagree with has a better argument. Sometimes it is a silent process. A problem or issue arises and I don’t delve, I just accept what my “everybody” says about it.
Then I read something or see a video that challenges that position and makes a good case. That is when I start to pay attention and revise my original opinion.
Sometimes it is an actual back and forth with someone I know, written or verbal.
An example of a direct revision is on the issue of the Gay Wedding Cake. A case regarding this came before the SCOTUS and they ruled for the merchant. I wrote a critical post. Then my friend who does voiceovers made a comment which led to a productive discussion.
And with me changing my mind. She said that if the baker must make the cake, she would have no choice but to voice Nazi propaganda if a client wanted that. An artist would have to paint a portrait of Trump as Christ if a client wanted that.
My revised opinion is that the front facing portion of the business must serve all equally. But matters requiring custom work should be by contractual agreement, which can not be extorted.
An example of a silent change of opinion occurred for me in the weeks following the terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas.
Up until then, I had been vaguely “pro-Palestinian. I say vaguely because I am an American Jew and a lefty. I really didn’t know the history or the facts.
My initial gut reaction was that whatever the reasons for being pro-Palestinian had been, these atrocities changed things. I was shocked.
I started reading the posts of people whose political and moral acuity I trust. And learned that I had the wrong facts about many particulars.
I won’t go into the details here, but they are in my posts from that time.
Changing my mind in each of these cases and several others was not hard once I looked critically at the facts and evidence.
Taking this approach has its costs. Group think is comfortable and comforting. We are herd animals, and breaking away from the herd is hard. And lonely.
There are things I can’t talk about at all because the cost is too high. I know this because when I posted about anti-Semitism in the wake of October 7, without ever mentioning Israel, I was attacked by progressives online. There was and still isa large global uptick in violence against Jews. I was posting as an American Jew.
They sent me Hamas propaganda. They unfriended me or harassed me till I unfreinded them. Not one of them asked my thoughts on Israel or Gaza. I was guilty of WRONG THINK.
Yes, going along with the herd would be easier. But I simply cannot. I am not built that way. I see what I see and know what I know.
Nuance is important.
This is my process but some version of it would work for any thinking person. Just take something you are sure and question it. Try it.
You might surprise yourself.