I have decided to share with you a transcript of an email exchange I had over the course of a few weeks with a woman from Canada; the emails have been lightly edited for clarity. At different points, I’ll be sharing my thought process about what’s going on in the … Read More
Does Your Image Need a Face-Lift?
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes. “Ben Shapiro DESTROYS Socialism” “Don’t Apologize to the Mob” Do titles like this sound familiar? Sure, the content inside might be entertaining to those who agree, but if you spoke like that in a conversation, would you convince anyone? It’s really easy to forget the … Read More
What to Do When the Utilitarian Bites the Bullet
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes. Helping someone change their mind about something often comes down to presenting them with a choice: change your mind or bite a bullet. In other words, demonstrate that their position requires them to accept a conclusion they really don’t want to accept. This is why … Read More
Why Viability Is the Least Plausible Definition of Personhood
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes. When we make the Equal Rights Argument, pro-choice people tend to respond with an alternative definition of personhood, usually an attribute that they believe humans must have in order to be considered valuable persons, such as sentience, brain activity, self-awareness, or the ability to feel … Read More
PODCAST: Stories from the Students for Life Conference
[youtube id=”Bbdk_15yelU”] Download Audio MP3 | 01:00:30 Tim, Rachel, and I sat down to share some of our favorite stories from the people we talked to at the 2018 Students for Life East Coast Conference. We walked away from that conference glowing, excitedly telling each other stories, because that was … Read More
Pay Attention to Who Should NOT Be in a Given Conversation
If you are a part of a dialogue-oriented outreach, you should be paying attention to who should be in a given conversation, and who should not be. Estimated reading time: 16 minutes. It was our second day of outreach at Davidson College and after having had several conversations, a lull … Read More
Circumventing Philosophy Hell
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes. Imagine you’re out hiking with a friend in the beautiful (and fictional) country of Florin, as depicted in The Princess Bride. You’re both clueless tourists but you’ve casually looked at some maps and you think you can handle yourselves. As you’re walking by a ravine, … Read More
Don’t Dialogue Like Hamilton OR Aaron Burr
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes. The character of Aaron Burr in Hamilton: An American Musical stands in stark contrast to the title character. Alexander Hamilton is brash, aggressive, tactless, and always reaches for what he wants, while Aaron Burr is polite, careful, and hesitant. When he initially meets Hamilton, Burr … Read More
Building Rapport with a Benevolent Dictator
Employ this dialogue tactic to build rapport with a pro-choice person and increase the likelihood that your conversation about abortion will be successful. Estimated reading time: 4 minutes. Many conversations about abortion succeed or fail because of your rapport, or lack thereof, with the pro-choice person. Even a perfectly articulated … Read More
Four Practical Tips for Responding to the Burning Fertility Clinic
A pro-choice argument in the form of a series of arrogant tweets recently went viral. You would think that with all that bravado, there would have been something new or interesting, but, no, it was just the same argument that has been around for decades. Disappointing as the argument was, … Read More