The two postures
I think it is more productive to attempt explaining to people as to why we believe in what we believe in, instead of debating with them in order to change their minds.
I admit that in the end, the hard contents of the conversation may end up being similar. However, the posture is different and that changes everything.
Sometimes it is more difficult to personally explain something rather than painting the object of the conversation as something "objective" and thus our POV as objectively "right".
Often it's faster to just take the easy way out and instead of really explaining ourselves we spit out some purported "facts". Facts are easy; Explanations are hard. Instead of deferring the responsibility of explanation to a set of supposedly self-explanatory "facts", we should explain ourselves to get to the truth.
(p.s. I don't know how but I just noticed spinto isn't a maintainer. Don't know who or what de-maintainer'ed him. Maybe he did it to himself and now he doesn't get to vote.)
I admit that in the end, the hard contents of the conversation may end up being similar. However, the posture is different and that changes everything.
Sometimes it is more difficult to personally explain something rather than painting the object of the conversation as something "objective" and thus our POV as objectively "right".
Often it's faster to just take the easy way out and instead of really explaining ourselves we spit out some purported "facts". Facts are easy; Explanations are hard. Instead of deferring the responsibility of explanation to a set of supposedly self-explanatory "facts", we should explain ourselves to get to the truth.
(p.s. I don't know how but I just noticed spinto isn't a maintainer. Don't know who or what de-maintainer'ed him. Maybe he did it to himself and now he doesn't get to vote.)