You’re Not Going to Change Your Mind (2017)

One of their examples of "factual" questions is:

Is immigration harmful to the economy?

"harmful to the economy" is a rather subjective term, because different people care more about different parts of the "economy".

Does "harmful to the economy" mean share prices go down, or does it mean people lose their jobs, or does it mean there are more poor people, or does it mean you have less choice when you go shopping, or does it mean average wealth per person goes down, and does average wealth include public goods like the environment? And so on ...

But of course you ARE going to change your mind. People do often, and throughout their lifetimes. Believing that minds don't change is like believing that advertising doesn't work. But as an advertising exec (whose name I don't recall) memorably said: "We find that advertising is like grass growing; you don't see it growing but you still have to mow the lawn every week."

As a cultural conservative I have discovered that many people I _thought_ held certain values didn't really -- they were just taking the path of least resistance. And indeed, taking the path of least resistance is the constant for them.

It's not even 'desires', it's identity when we have people declare "I'm a democrat" or "I'm a republican", one should vote for the candidate with the best policy however you want to define that.

(2017)