Plus ca change

You know, I really do think I reason my way to my own conclusions, but am periodically reminded that so too do all other reasonably intelligent and independent people. This is from about 30 years, but as John Cleese points out in the tweet, it might have been ten minutes ago, although the enemies list may have changed slightly.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1271535485467283457

My own tone is slowly softening, which was my hope and my predictions.  My views won’t change as I heal and evolve, but I fully expect my manner of explaining them–and specifically my degree of pugnacity in the face of opposition–to change a lot.

If I’m honest, if I’m debating someone whose main goal is really just to get me to lose my temper and discontinue the exchange, then when I DO lose my temper, they win.  They don’t win intellectually, obviously.  Their bad ideas do not thereby become good.

However, I do believe myself to be better than them, so holding myself to a higher standard is reasonable.  They then become agents of my growth, and the chance is non-zero–as it likely is in most of my past exchanges–that I might actually change a mind, perhaps of an observer, if not the person trying to push my buttons.