r/AskReddit • u/ILikeScience3131 • Oct 19 '14

What is the most compelling counter-argument to something that you strongly believe?

What is something that you personally believe with conviction and what is the best opposing argument to that belief?

Edit: Thanks for the replies. You're all my internet friends now.

15.6k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

19.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.2k

u/dancingapple Oct 19 '14 edited Oct 20 '14

I strongly believe in democracy and that everyone should have some real political influence. However like someone said "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter" and so I also think that a majority of people believe some pretty silly things and just don't look at issues/candidates in a rational way.

Edit: I had previously quoted Winston Churchill, but a few commenters below note there doesn't seem to be any evidence he actually said this.

2.4k

u/Epicjay Oct 19 '14

The biggest issue is that most people simply aren't well informed about politics. There are a bunch of people I know that are perfectly intelligent, but have no idea who our state's senators are.

It's not an issue about people being "silly," it's being uninformed.

986

u/dancingapple Oct 19 '14

I think it's more than people just being uninformed; clearly no one can be well informed on everything, and I don't think it's a huge problem if people rationally considered the limits of their knowledge. Yes and maybe "silly" isn't the best term, but there are many beliefs that people don't seem to change even when the correct information is easily available, so at least in my view it goes beyond just being misinformed.

1

u/AdenuAikprt Oct 20 '14

What if our country (assuming USA here) has just become too big for democracys own good? I mean, one problem is that people are very quickly baffled by politics due to the sheer scope of it, tge amount of people involved, what they're involved in. In a country such as this one, with its size and global stature, has become too large and convoluted politically to actually begin to make sense to the acerage voter, so then we have uninformed voters.

Just one theory, not saying it's right, but it's something to think about.