It reminds me of when Richard Dawkins was doing a bunch of interviews and discussions to promote his then-latest book The God Delusion. It was kind of irritating to hear the people he was talking with failing again and again in the same predictable ways, raising the same dumb points every time. And you could tell that Dawkins was sick of it, too. The few times when someone said something surprising, something that might force him to change his mind about something (even a minor point), his face lit up and his voice took on an excited tone. And when he was particularly uncertain about something, he said so.
People accused him of being arrogant and unwilling to change his mind; the problem is that the people he was arguing with were just so piteously wrong that of course he’s not going to change his mind from talking with them. It’s funny, because one of the things I really like about Dawkins is that he’s genuinely respectful in discussions with other people. Sometimes barbed, but always fundamentally respectful. When the other person says something, he won’t ignore it or talk past them, and he assumes (often wrongly) that whoever he’s speaking with is intelligent enough and sane enough to handle a lack of sugarcoating.
And of course, all this led to accusations of cultishness, for exactly the same reasons that are making you uncomfortable.
It reminds me of when Richard Dawkins was doing a bunch of interviews and discussions to promote his then-latest book The God Delusion. It was kind of irritating to hear the people he was talking with failing again and again in the same predictable ways, raising the same dumb points every time. And you could tell that Dawkins was sick of it, too. The few times when someone said something surprising, something that might force him to change his mind about something (even a minor point), his face lit up and his voice took on an excited tone. And when he was particularly uncertain about something, he said so.
People accused him of being arrogant and unwilling to change his mind; the problem is that the people he was arguing with were just so piteously wrong that of course he’s not going to change his mind from talking with them. It’s funny, because one of the things I really like about Dawkins is that he’s genuinely respectful in discussions with other people. Sometimes barbed, but always fundamentally respectful. When the other person says something, he won’t ignore it or talk past them, and he assumes (often wrongly) that whoever he’s speaking with is intelligent enough and sane enough to handle a lack of sugarcoating.
And of course, all this led to accusations of cultishness, for exactly the same reasons that are making you uncomfortable.