Dave W wrote: Deeply visceral opinions held for long periods of time don't change overnight; we should be encouraging people who want to change, not vilifying them for what they used to think.
We are clearly in tune here, Dave.
I think that it is important to think about what you want to achieve when you make a point. If what you actually want to do is to influence and change someone's opinion, then you will never achieve that by either insulting them or condemning them. What you need to do is argue logically why the view you have is a more reasonable one.
At worst, if you do this you will achieve nothing. At best, you will sow a small seed that will hopefully germinate over time. People have views that are both formed from their experience, but also heavily influenced by upbringing and environment, and the moral framework of that time. In the case of the lady who wrote the article, you can tell that the seed has germinated, but hasn't yet fully grown into true enlightenment. Why I personally consider the article was an interesting one was because it highlighted the honest struggle most of us go through when we know that our own moral compass needs a swing, but we find it genuinely difficult to eradicate our long held stereotypes.
If, though, on the other hand you choose to belittle, undermine or insult this growth process, you are almost never going to change opinion. Indeed, you are going to shut the door on the very open mindedness you purport to believe in. When you do this from a pulpit of moral superiority, you make your task doubly impossible.
One of the reasons why we have Trump in the White House and we have Brexit is because the so called liberal minded intellectuals have proved unable to argue their case well. Instead, they have sunk to insults, and shown themselves in practice to be, at times, extremely close minded. People don't like their thoughts and opinions being trampled all over, and they then shut themselves off. Worse still, such insults close down the debate, and it is only through that debate that you plant those seeds.
That people read this lady's open and honest thoughts as misogynistic is unfortunate, and the sign of a closed mind. Such strong condemnation shuts down the debate that will actually bring her to her new moral framework. Or, for that matter, others. Most people don't have the courage that it takes to confront moral superiority and political correctness. In this case, she has done just that, and opened herself to the inevitable barrage of holier than thou tosh. That takes a lot more guts that simply calling her a misogynist and adding a few throwing up emoticons in for good measure.
It is a sad fact of life that often the people that claim to be the most liberal and open minded with that superior moral compass are often the most autocratic, controlling, bullying and closed minded of all.
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