Ah, that’s where the anti-zombie shibboleths come in handy. People who are afraid of zombies “know” that zombies can’t understand the values of regular, living people. (The zombies being a metaphor for a distorted view of one’s ideological opponents.)
All I have to do is describe why being alive is good and being a zombie is bad, and that proves I’m not a zombie. That calms people down, to the point where we can explore some possible advantages of zombiehood and disadvantages of having vital function, and what we can do about that without losing what we value about breathing, having a heartbeat, et cetera.
Any expert on conflict resolution can tell you that one of the first things to do is to paraphrase and validate someone’s concerns. I can tell you that if you dig deep enough existentially into someone’s values, there’s usually something to understand, and even agree with on some level, even if you don’t agree with the methods they use to pursue those values.
As for the politicians spreading panic, they aren’t literally standing around screaming at people all the time. There is plenty of opportunity to help people feel safe enough to think. The main problem that I occasionally run into is when a person just gets into a loop of regurgitating information, like they’re a one-person echo chamber. Those people tend to be on the older side, and I don’t think they’re prevalent enough or capable enough to try and shut down intelligent discussion.
Ah, that’s where the anti-zombie shibboleths come in handy. People who are afraid of zombies “know” that zombies can’t understand the values of regular, living people. (The zombies being a metaphor for a distorted view of one’s ideological opponents.)
All I have to do is describe why being alive is good and being a zombie is bad, and that proves I’m not a zombie. That calms people down, to the point where we can explore some possible advantages of zombiehood and disadvantages of having vital function, and what we can do about that without losing what we value about breathing, having a heartbeat, et cetera.
Any expert on conflict resolution can tell you that one of the first things to do is to paraphrase and validate someone’s concerns. I can tell you that if you dig deep enough existentially into someone’s values, there’s usually something to understand, and even agree with on some level, even if you don’t agree with the methods they use to pursue those values.
As for the politicians spreading panic, they aren’t literally standing around screaming at people all the time. There is plenty of opportunity to help people feel safe enough to think. The main problem that I occasionally run into is when a person just gets into a loop of regurgitating information, like they’re a one-person echo chamber. Those people tend to be on the older side, and I don’t think they’re prevalent enough or capable enough to try and shut down intelligent discussion.
Does that all make sense?