English

When I heard there was a book titled How to Argue with Fundamentalists without Losing Your Mind, my ears perked up. Unfortunately, the reviewer explained, the title was misleading. It turns out that the book actually recommends avoiding arguments with religious fundamentalists and secular ideologues because ideologies cannot be refuted that way; their adherants find an answer to every objection. The author, Austrian philosopher Hubert Schleichert, who died in 2020, traces arguments among Christian thinkers about whether or not a variety of beliefs should be tolerated. [Read More]

Deutsch Part of the appeal of extremist movements is that they make their followers feel powerful. Unfortunately, they also attract fanatics who love to judge fellow members as not committed enough. The more successful the movements become in depriving their supporters of democracy and the rule of law, the more dire the consequences of being judged not MAGA enough can be. It’s important to warn people about this curse because they probably haven’t thought about it–because they’re intoxicated, not because they’re stupid. [Read More]

Deutsch A long-lost resource for understanding political bullying was recently found, transcribed, and published for the first time: a recording of a 1967 lecture by sociologist Theodor W. Adorno. He spoke to a group of college students who wanted to know what to do about the rise of a new far-right party in Germany. Several points Adorno made about 1960s Germany sound like they could have been made in a TED Talk yesterday–about either Germany or the USA. [Read More]