I hear a lot that seems not quite right.
Oh, you too?
People constantly talk past each other in an unknowable way.
The recipe is typically that innuendo and stereotype get combined with emotion – and you get an uninformed response.
This is never intentional, of course, but easy to fall into.
For example, you might have a lot of ideas about Saudi Arabia. Or what life in Saudi Arabia is like.
If I sat and listened to all of them quietly, at the end I would no doubt graciously say: “Mmm. That’s
Remember, people tend to think like the group instead of reassessing, or simply saying, “I don’t know.”
It’s a pride thing, if you ask me.
I am an academic, but I am also a Christian. When I hear academics talk about Christians, I typically think, That’s not quite right. I don’t believe you understand the people you think you’re disagreeing with. And when I listen to Christians talk about academics I have precisely the same thought. I have spent decades noting these pervasive misunderstandings, trying to figure out how they arise, and looking for ways to correct them.
-Alan Jacobs, How To Think (Amazon)