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Very well said bssc! I have long believed that the "true" enemy of all people is not extreme liberalism, or religious folks, etc. The real enemy I have always believed is zealotry. The idea that when your convictions are strong enough, facts cease to matter to you any more. When reason and facts no longer guide your decisions and actions, then literally we become capable of anything. That zealotry comes in many flavors, and can take on lots of different forms. Religious, political, ideological, race or gender based, and many others I am sure I am probably forgetting. But at the core of all of them, is the monster known as zealotry. In a very real way, I fear these folks more than anyone else. I once got into an argument with a man at work about the definition of a certian word. So rather than argue all day about it, I suggested letting the dictionary be the final impartial arbiter. Upon reading the definition that was almost verbatim what I had said, he merely replyed, "Well then.... obviously the dictionary is wrong!" Rather than admit that he was clearly in error, he chose to fight on. And the arguements he used just got more and more irrational as time went by, trying to twist things around somehow, so he could still be "right". Needless to say I no longer argue with him about anything, what would be the point in doing that? There is nothing more that I can learn from him.
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