By Filings on
Christian Living
Listening
Wisdom
Tribalism
Polarization

“We live in a culture where we are relatively isolated, and it’s easy to create an online bubble around me of people who think like me. It’s not easy to intentionally move out of that bubble and to listen to viewpoints you disagree with. But I think now more than ever we need to do that.” - P&D

Discussion

Mon, 04/20/26

There are so many!

I try to sort of triage: “people I disagree with who are still obviously thoughtful people” vs. “people I disagree with who pretty clearly not putting in much effort.” Or similar… because I can always learn something from thoughtful people who do some rigorous thinking, even if they land in places that are not quite my own views, or not even remotely close to my own views.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Mon, 04/27/26

Aaron wrote:

I try to sort of triage: “people I disagree with who are still obviously thoughtful people” vs. “people I disagree with who pretty clearly not putting in much effort.” Or similar… because I can always learn something from thoughtful people who do some rigorous thinking, even if they land in places that are not quite my own views, or not even remotely close to my own views.

That is one of the reasons I still come to SI. There is a guy named Dave that I almost always agree with and then there is another Dave that I often disagree with. Yet, I have a lot in common with both Daves and find a lot of agreement with them both. If I were ever to meet either of them in real life, I would count it a joy. I expect to spend eternity with both of them whether we ever meet in this life or not.

The Dave I often disagree with has helped me to shape how I express disagreement. I am much more careful how I chose my words as I disagree because of the bold interactions we have had. I am still learning and I wish I could be better at gracefully disagreeing, but I think the SI interactions have changed me for the better even though I have more growing to do.