Traverse Davies
Nov 7 · 1 min read

Here’s a question: Were you wrong earlier or simply too closed to debate?

I’ve always believed in debate, but at the same time, there is a lot of evidence for certain kinds of policy and a lot of emotion for other kinds. For example: letting prisoners out of prison. Well, incarceration has proven to not deter crime and things like mandatory minimum sentences are provably destructive to society as a whole as well as individuals with no benefit.

Sure, some degree of incarceration is probably warranted, but if our goal is to reduce crime it should be a last resort, not the default option.

Guns are a weird one. I don’t believe that the number of guns is the main reason for all the gun violence in the US, but I do believe that the attitudes that have lead to that level of guns are. Making guns less accessible is probably not the answer by itself. Making the idea of shooting someone as horrible as it actually is seems like a better answer.

One thing that matters is finding out why someone believes something. If you believe that abortion is murdering a child then someone telling you that it’s all about choice isn’t necessarily an argument that is going to work. You are arguing facts against emotions and humans don’t tend to go that way. Instead, you have to work with their emotions, make that framework your basis for argument.

    Traverse Davies

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    I do survival, self-publishing consultation, and writing. Check out my blog: https://dreamtime.logic11.com