Our house moderate/common-ground seeking/ division-mending optimist/ space-traveling commentator Extradimensional Cephalopod authored another helpful post, and his (its?) perspective is always provocative. It was also buried so deep in the comments that I wonder how many read it, so giving the piece COTD status is appropriate.

Here is E.C.’s Comment of the day on the post, “The Cowardice and Obstinacy of the Trump Deranged: A Depressing Case Study From Facebook (I Despair)“…

There will absolutely be people who aren’t prepared to handle the possibility that they’re wrong.  I recognize those people when their responses don’t engage with what I’m saying, no matter how many times I repeat the question.  They’ll reply with non sequiturs, strawmen, or simple repetition.  Even the most basic and reasonable questions, asked with complete respect, will slide right off of their mind.  

Those people are not the low-hanging fruit.  We can disregard them for the time being.  Someone else can create an environment where they feel safe enough to let go of the dogma they cling to, but that doesn’t need to happen right now.  

Part of why I use the values reconciliation method on everyone is that if I don’t, everyone looks like that to me.  Barking at people just starts an endless circle of barking.  Mutual defensiveness creates the illusion of intractable conflict.  I wrote an article about that: https://ginnungagapfoundation.wordpress.com/2025/12/12/how-can-we-stop-chihuahua-rhetoric/.

There is almost no possibility that a person will start thinking reasonably if the approach I use, no matter how solid the logic, appears to threaten their values.  Instead, I work to create conditions that reward people for reflecting.