You’re Not Going to Change Your Mind

Interesting article, and odd to see it filed under 'opinion', when it mostly reports on the results of an experiment. Two sentences at the beginning stuck out, however:

"Do guns make society safer? Is immigration harmful to the economy?"

I think the author and, taking a guess, those who disagree with him on these issue, may be talking past each other on these. Instead of "Do guns make society safer?", try "Does pervasive surveillance make society safer?". Suddenly, even if the answer is 'yes', it probably won't make you change your opinion of it.

Similarly, I think it's the fear of becoming a minority, and the subsequently more vulnerable position in what used to be their country, that drives people to be against immigration. The economy and terrorism (with the grossly inflated fear over it compared to ones actual likelihood in being a victim of it in western countries) are mostly scapegoats. Textbook exaggerating the evils of the out-group, and diminishing the ones by the in-group.