The world seems to be full of divisiveness and disagreement about a whole range of issues. I thought it would be nice, in the spirit of the holiday season, to think of some statements or positions on which we all can agree.
What are some things we can all agree on? My only request is that you don’t say something about this thread or this question. No “I think we can all agree that this thread is a stupid idea,” or the like. I only intend to provoke thoughtful discussion and maybe bring some people together.
Anyway, starting off, here are three of my own statements:
I think we can all agree that planning is essential to success in life.
I think we can all agree that our interconnected, instantaneous world is forcing our children and all future generations to confront serious issues and mature topics at an earlier age than previous generations.
I think we can all agree that there’s someone out there worse off than we are.
Please feel free to chime in. Do you agree? Do you have any of your own?
I doubt this is true, at least for many first world countries. For example, I’d bet the proportion of American kids who confronted “serious issues and mature topics” was a lot higher in the 19th century than it is now. Think of all the kids who were slaves, or worked in sweatshops, or who had families decimated by the Civil War.
I’m not saying that there aren’t serious situations that directly affect kids today, but a bigger fraction of kids in the US can grow up in a bubble now than before.
Not only have we done this before, recently, but as I said there the vast majority of facts and even opinions in your mind will correlate with everyone else’s. e.g. Two is greater than one, or IMO a gram of rolled up tissue paper would make an ineffective bowling ball.
We tend to instead focus on the areas of difference because that’s interesting to us; it’s a conflict to resolve or potentially new information to learn.
Anyway, it seems to me any interesting statement someone might make in this thread will be contentious. For example, “planning is essential to success in life”, is a nice idea to live by, but being strict about it I’d have to disagree. Some people love what they do enough that they Just do it[sup]TM[/sup] and don’t have/need a future plan, but may nonetheless succeed. Indeed planning can sometimes get in the way of just getting on with it, but I’d agree generally speaking it’s a good idea.
Wow. I am mortified. Tell me I’m not the first person to start the same thread a week later. I must have read that thread title and subconsciously thought what a cool idea for a thread. And now even the idea sucks. Nothing can be agreed on.
With that said, I apologize but do have another tangentially related question.
Why are facts always debated in the media? You’d think if something was factual, backed up by science, or a study, or a poll, it would be beyond reproach. But they have fact-checkers and even then, everyone wants to twist facts or dispute facts. If they are facts, they are facts.
They just don’t have the same power anymore. What kind of strategies do politicians use to make facts irrelevant and how is it possible to ignore the facts and still hold a competing position?
This bothers me because knowing the facts should inform policy making. But it seems now the focus is shifting to Ideology vs. Ideology. What gives?
Ehm… data from polls is factual only with a pile of caveats which too often are not given. It’s factual that the particular poll gave some results, but
what was the sample supposed to be representative of? Can you for example poll 1000 winter birds in Arizona and say their opinions are representative of Arizonians? Can you say they are representative of Americans?
how well was it sized and taken?
what do the “does not know” “no answer” ones actually mean?
how many people were approached and refused to answer?
how many would have answered but turned out not to be eligible?
which of the poll’s variables are linked to each other? how?
etc etc
Like in any other kind of research, in polls very often the most interesting data is in the unexpected parts, but most polls don’t make room for those. There’s no “comments”; it’s a market study for a product and you are not eligible if you don’t already consume it ( why? Aren’t they interested in how to sell it to those who aren’t already their customers?), etc
why? Aren’t they interested in how to sell it to those who aren’t already their customers?), etc