I started writing a book
It was gonna just be a blog post - a thoughtful way for working through divisive issues with people you care about, partially in the hopes of bringing them over to my side.
I wrote 1,408 words, about 600 of them regarding a small portion of only one issue, the rest being about my formula for how divisive issues could be discussed.
I told my bestie about it.
I thought later about how helpful it could be.
I started thinking about what an introduction for this book would be.
I started a libreoffice document and wrote that introduction.
I turned that into chapter 1 and wrote another section for the chapter.
I'm not committing to this book. But I'm interested in it. I might decide to make it a blog post after all. I might keep writing. I don't know. But I'm kind of excited to find out where it goes.
The formula I considered for how to work through issues was basically this:
- Ask about values: "Do you think black people should be allowed in civic life?"
- Follow with beliefs: "I believe [politician] doesn't share that sentiment and is actually trying to remove black people from civic life."
- Understanding: "Do you understand why I would oppose [politician], then?"
- Move to facts: "Then can we talk about things I know about [politician]?"
Hopefully you can see the value in that at least. Starting with listening and understanding a person's perspective, before getting into any factual knowledge. And it goes both ways.
For a right-leaning example:
- Value: Do you think the best person should be hired for any given job, without prejudice?
- Belief: I believe that DEI programs hire less-qualified queer people and discriminate against straight men.
- Understanding: Do you understand why I would oppose DEI programs, given my understanding?
- Facts: Let me tell you about what I've heard about DEI programs, then I'll listen to what you've heard.
Once again, we start with values, and we accept the beliefs as true. Only once we understand the other person do we move into facts. And then the listener gets a chance to do the same.
This may be a bit too formulaic and seemingly strict for conversation, but yaknow it's the starting point anyway, and I think the general concept will work well in book form.