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Open for Debate

The Benefits of Disagreement

Posted on 17 June 2019 by Katherine Dormandy

Our world contains a whirlwind of claims and opinions, including about important matters like politics, ethics, and religion. In forming our own view, it is natural to find our way by taking the opinions of our friends, social media circles, and political and religious compatriots more seriously than outsiders’. After all, they share our values
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Open for Debate

Argument Repair

Posted on 3 June 2019 by Catherine Hundleby

It’s easy to blame current problems with public discourse on the brevity of on-line communication. People are moving away from blogs to image exchanges. TLDR. Limited word counts (such as on Twitter) and the combination of immediacy with anonymity lend to verbal fighting. Quick comebacks receive rewards of “likes” and “thumbs up”. We might mitigate
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Open for Debate

What Polarization Does to Us

Posted on 30 May 2019 by Robert B. Talisse

Commentators from across the political spectrum warn us that extreme partisan polarization is dissolving all bases for political cooperation, thereby undermining our democracy.  The near total consensus on this point is suspicious.  A recent Pew study finds that although citizens want politicians to compromise more, they tend to blame only their political opponents for the
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Good Conversation

Posted on 20 May 2019 by Josh Habgood-Coote

On the first of march 2018, Jack Dorsey published a manifesto setting out Twitter’s plans for improving the site.
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