Carl Sagan's been gestating in my brain for a week...

The only cure for delusion and ignorance is information.

Nothing is more dangerous to this country than ignorance. Let me be clear, ignorance, I like to think, is abundant in all circles, and no political, social, or theological group is free from it. And let me also be clear that avoiding ignorance does not mean "being right, " in fact it is just the opposite. It is never being right.

Being free from ignorance is not a passive state, it is an active state. It means a commitment to pursuing and communicating the truth, no matter how complex or counter-intuitive it may end up being. It means being aware of your personal biases, and combating them instead of leaning into them. In short, it means never being satisfied with what you believe. It means considering opinions that are entirely abhorrent to you. And I suppose, it also means being courageously vocal regarding what you believe, something that will cause conflict. But as you know from English class, conflict is essential to a good story. And who doesn't want to be part of a good story?

What I mean to say, is that ignorance will continue as long as people's views are equated with their core being, and therefore their value. Dismissing an assertion, once you have enough evidence to do so, is understandable and expected. Dismissing an entire PERSON is never a good idea, because history has shown that like ignorance, truth has no boundaries. Even the most seemingly bigoted, idiotic, backwards and misleading rant can have some truth in it.

That's a pretty pithy thing to say, I know. Because one can't go through one's whole life listening to nonsense, hoping to find some grain of truth in it. I don't think you should abandon your point of view. Quite the opposite: keeping your own point of view is important because the multitude of diverse, but still self-justified points of view is what gives us the best chance of making sense of the world. If your point of view doesn't even make sense to you, then the chances are even less that it'll point towards the truth. Keep your point of view, but recognize that the more you challenge it, the stronger it will become, and the more you pander to it, the weaker it will become.

When I say that the only cure for delusion and ignorance is information, what I mean is that as soon as the argument begins to be about the people involved, and not the issues at hand, then nothing is getting done except squabbling.