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Ask HN: Liberal seeking conservative pen pal for good faith debate

by czep on 12/9/20, 10:15 PM with 28 comments

Is there a venue for matching people with politically opposed views to meet, learn, share, and debate with each other in good faith? I have wanted to do this for awhile and I think now it is more important than ever. My views are for the most part what one would label as "liberal" as opposed to "conservative" in the common but highly reductive US political terms. My social media bubble is an echo chamber so I only ever see strawman arguments in opposition. I don't talk about politics with co-workers for the same reason I don't talk about sports or religion---it never ends well!

I want to meet smart people with politically different views who are also interested in healthy debate. By "healthy" I mean you should both expect and extend respect for each other's right to hold our opinions. I would not be trying to "convert" anyone to my point of view. I will be open-minded enough to admit to not having all the answers. I will commit to logical, well-reasoned discussion. Argumentation can be heated, but personal attacks are off limits. I genuinely want to understand how other people think, especially those who have come to different views about topics than I have.

I would prefer a 1:1 format, or perhaps a small group discussion board. Real time video would probably be best to promote honest discourse due to the human connection, but might be logistically difficult to arrange, and I also want both sides to have time to think before preparing responses.

Any interest?

  • by giantg2 on 12/10/20, 2:16 PM

    "Is there a venue for matching people with politically opposed views to meet, learn, share, and debate with each other in good faith?"

    That used to be at places like college, parties/bars, or other casual social events (dinner, lunch, coffee with extended friends groups).

    I would guess you can get some offers on here or forums/websites.

    Another thing that I do, is read others comments or articles and try to find weak points in my own arguments or new data/perspectives that change my views, or at least help me understand the views of others.

  • by chaganated on 12/9/20, 10:39 PM

    Logocentrism is a dead end. If you want to see the world as a conservative would, take up weightlifting and start your own business.

  • by BnMcGn on 12/10/20, 8:40 PM

    I'm building discussion software that aims at promoting good faith debate. It's geared towards in-depth fact checking rather than dialog, but still might be interesting to you.

    That aside, I should be able to represent the conservative point of view in an email exchange. Either way, drop me a line. My email is in my profile.

  • by tomcam on 12/11/20, 2:04 AM

    Sure. Contact information in my profile.

  • by giantg2 on 12/10/20, 10:32 PM

    I forgot. There's always IRC. Plenty of chatrooms to get into and move to private chat.

  • by froasty on 12/9/20, 11:02 PM

    I'd be interested in participating in a dialogue with this goal in mind.

  • by core-questions on 12/10/20, 2:42 AM

    Sure, this could be fun. Let me know if you find a good place to do this.

  • by poldisc on 12/10/20, 4:53 PM

    This is a good idea. Avenues for honest political discussion are sorely missing. I'm personally more libertarian than conservative but I can defend some of the latter's viewpoints.

    To anyone interested, send something to politicaldiscussion at protonmail.com and I'll get a message board set up.

  • by knaq on 12/10/20, 9:25 AM

    I see that nobody here (currently: czep, froasty, throwaway0b1, chaganated, core-questions) has any contact info in their Hacker News profile. Usually for political stuff that means a conservative working in the Bay Area, hiding in fear, though czep claims to be liberal.

    Plain old phone numbers might be best for this.

    It could be too scary with all the hostility. Given how the tech industry is, not many conservatives will be willing to reveal themselves. Performance reviews could suddenly turn sour for no apparent reason, and lots of conservatives have family to support.

  • by decafninja on 12/10/20, 2:22 PM

    My dad is the conservative I can do what you describe with.

    (Hopefully the following doesn't go against any politics rules...)

    However he despises Trump/Trumpism and so sat out the 2016 election and voted against Trump in 2020.

    So along a similar vein to what you're looking for, I'd actually like to have a civilized, respectful, discussion with a Trump supporter (not merely just a conservative), since my dad doesn't fill that role.

  • by throwaway0b1 on 12/10/20, 5:47 AM

    I would also be interested.