Glaucon wrote:
This site has a never ending flow of hostility and lack of useful communication. I assume most of us began participating on this site in order to exchange opinions and information and, hopefully, learn something. We may be able to save this exchange if we really want to. I think we are destroying the site partially because we are not aware of five basic things. These six things are not opinions, I think they are about as near to being facts as humans can get.
We are all biased. I dont mean you are all biased, I mean we humans are all biased. All media is biased, some intentionally and some unintentionally, but none are free of it.
We are not aware of most of our biases.
We defend our unconscious biases with protective arguments called rationalizations in attempt to protect them. Often times, our reasons that protect our biases are obvious to others, but not to ourselves. Usually, we become angry when our biases are exposed.
We protect out biases by avoiding information that reveals them, people who offer counter arguments, and other sources of non confirming information and opinions. This is called the confirmation bias. Look it up on Wikipedia.
We can gain access to our unconscious biases in several ways, but first we must become aware we have biases and begin to know what they are about.
We often think we see our biases in others as a way of avoiding recognizing them in ourselves.
What are your thoughts (and emotions) about these statements?
This site has a never ending flow of hostility and... (
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I agree with you. I joined to broaden my horizon. Boy, has it been broadened. I have read a few things that have made me stop and think about the other side of situation. This has been good. Most of the time I ask myself "how can people talk like this to each other?"