How Not to Suck at Nuanced Debates
I found these points by Krish Ashok to be very useful advice as to how people like us (“privileged, urban, middle class”) should avoid dealing with fraught topics, be it “demonetisation or Jallikattu or whatever tears us apart next”: 1) Remind yourself that the media will only highlight the rare/out of the ordinary event: “What would you report on? That most Jallikattu events are largely injury and death-free? Or on the one instance where chillies, lime juice, and alcohol were involved?” 2) Resist the urge to take a side: “After being misinformed in the first place, we now take that misinformation, add our confirmation biases, and grab the pitchforks to battle for the stance we’ve decided to take.” 3) Remind yourself that, quite often, you are hardly qualified to understand the topic, let alone form an opinion: “I have zero emotional attachment with rural life or the remotest ap...