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W Quotes

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All W Quotes

“When somebody summarizes an argument thoughtfully before offering a counterargument, the resulting debate tends to be more meaningful and productive. Much of what passes for argument in our society consists of people badly misrepresenting each other's arguments and responding to points that another person is not making. This inevitably leads to frustration and anger and a feeling of being rhetorically manipulated instead of honestly challenged. Correctly paraphrasing somebody's position makes it much harder to misrepresent that position while trying to argue against it.”

“When somebody tells us something that would be disturbing or inconvenient for us to believe, we reflexively scrutinize that person for some excuse to discredit him. Their disdain for emotion and dogged, blindered focus on Evidence and the Facts makes it tempting to speculate that people like Ken, rather than simply being more objective than the rest of us - which might threaten to make us feel stupid - just have more deeply buried agendas and are driven by unconscious forces about which they're in even better-defended denial. It's unusually not hard to find such ulterior motives in anyone, especially not in the sorts of people who are most likely to bring us such news.”

“When somebody uses nuclear weapon to cause destruction, it's the fault of the individual. But, when an individual uses scripture as justification for their atrocities, it's the fault of an entire community. How come! I am not condoning religious violence, any more than I am condoning “scientific violence”, such as, nuclear proliferation, big pharma exploitation, big tech recklessness, and so on. All I am asking is that, sensible people see sense, putting aside their prejudicial inclinations for a second. We all know about the atrocities committed by organized religion. But if we are not cautious, we will end up doing the same with science, deluded by our grandeur of intellect, and pomposity of technology.”