Just wait until diseases that were previously eliminated from the continent cause outbreaks in the elementary school your child attends. Just wait until a demagogue exploits prejudices to commit unspeakable atrocities or until some ideologues push anti-intellectualism to the point where our leaders are unable to overcome partisanship long enough to even acknowledge the existence of what might well soon be the biggest change in our species' environment since the last ice age.

All of this has happened before and all of this is happening now, right before our eyes. We can care about all of these conflicting perspectives and try to mold them without becoming unbearable zealots. We can't afford not to.

(I think I missed your invisible /s?)

I do not agree with this line of thinking; often people have valid problems with what they're doing. I think that if there is injustice, one should speak up about it, rather than "fulfilling their economic roles quietly".

I don't know what's so unnerving about this statement. It's so enforcing the status quo, I'd guess. I say that if you're a Communist, or a Nazi, or whatever persuasion, and you feel something is unjust - speak up about it. Many people would rightly think there's something wrong with the current state of affairs.

A step back from that, should those sweatshop workers in Bangladesh fulfill their economic roles quietly and efficiently? I'd say it matters a great deal what's on their hearts and minds. And if it matters to them, if they have problems, why wouldn't it matter to us? Because our labour isn't being exploited as much?

I'm sorry if this comments comes accross as attackative, I just took issue with the statement. Please correct me if you didn't mean this at all. It unnerved me.

it apparently matters a great deal to a great many people what is in other people's hearts and minds. I suspect they don't have enough .... ego or something. The metaphor I have used with my kids about this is "they have stopped having a reflection in the mirror, or they have nothing but the reflection in the mirror."

Honestly? Seriously? The pastor at my childhood church thought that things like "Godspell" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" would lead to narcissism and a vapid sense of identity. And not just because religion - the general ...emphasis on self was a thing to be skeptical of. It wasn't a ... liturgical argument - he was a trained psychologist.

I am not sure wasn't right. It also makes me think of Otto's burned out hippie parents from "Repo Man", listening to the TV preacher.

That said, as for your hairdresser, tennis partner, etc... in a democracy it can make a difference if enough of them are anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers, anti-Semites, etc.!

https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dict...

This matters rather a lot if you're Jewish. You're arguing that "it doesn't matter if you don't look up", Star Wars passim.

Similarly it matters if your hairdresser is an anti-vaccer and spreads something contagious to you.

A certain amount of difference can be looked past, but when it comes to matters of life and death - and it can come to that surprisingly easily when things get heated - it matters.

What is truth??

EDIT: Well if Trump takes us to war, we will see a lot of fireworks /s.

Feel free to prove it to yourself: http://www.popsci.com/10-ways-you-can-prove-earth-is-round