Welp, it's late at night and I'm wired with thought about thought itself.

You know about the whole idea that "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend it to my death, " is a clinch, no it's actually one of the first things you have to do if you want to live in a functioning democracy, so is, "Let's agree to disagree," even though on DeviantIdiocy it's called a "thought killer." (DA sucks and the more I think about the more I think it was the worst place I ever posted.)

The weird thing about " Civility" is that it seems like the most horrible concept ever created until you try anything else.

Civility is what keeps a Democracy from going off the rails. Yes, it can seem bad having to debate, Nazis, Communist Anarchists, Racists, and People who believe that everything they don't like is racist until you realize that as long a civility holds up, they also have to debate you rather than shoot you. The weird thing is that people don't often read about countries where politicians lock up their opponents and things like that after they win. Those aren't nice places to live, they are hell holes whether they are socialist or authoritarian capitalist or whatever.

I often find the reason Americans find a Dictatorship so attractive, is they have no such thing in their history. In Dictatorships, people are murdered for saying slightly critical things about the Government or just being the wrong color or something.

Furthermore, Truth is kinda unknowable. One could simply be a brain in a jar being stimulated by an alien civilization and never know, one could be a thought floating through a void imagining everything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_that_I_know_nothing That ultimate wisdom is that one knows they know nothing.

Furthermore, it has been noted in both Western and Eastern traditions that some knowledge cannot be passed on verbally. Some things you learn through practice and exercise. You can read all the books on art and draftsmanship, but how to draw can only be learned through doing over and over again.

Finally, there's no proof we're the highest form of life, just that greatest thing we currently know of, it might be aliens really are coming to probe us daily, and before you say, "That's ridiculous, why would they do that," think about this, dogs understand a lot, but from their behavior do you think they understand everything a human does.

In Lovecraft's novels the Eldrich Gods aren't really Gods but creatures so highly evolved they seem like Gods. Think about this good and hard, the true nature of the universe could be unknowable to us the way the nature of a house is unknowable to an ant.

Philosophy and the language we use in philosophy could simply be like the ideas that cavemen expressed through grunts and noises to higher beings. It might be that the meaning of the universe is unknowable on our level.

Once you realize all this, you realize freedom of thought is incredibly important.

A lot of philosophers will say things like, "opinions should be changed like underwear, as frequently as possible."

John Kerry was called a hypocrite for supporting partial-birth abortion, but partial-birth abortion is done for different reasons they abortion in abortion clinics (yes this is not done at Planned Parenthood despite what people may tell you.) It's done as a life-saving emergency procedure. The fetus is almost always non-viable or even dead and the woman's health is always at risk. I am pro-life and I know this shit due to I often read why people on the other side believe what they do.

Saying, "Muh Opinion, donut debate," is probably the biggest way to rob yourself of knowledge possible. Yet people find constant excuses to never hear a single disagreement with them. People who are incredibly young and uneducated often declare themselves bastions of knowledge who know more than experts whether they understand that's what they are doing or not.

Communication breakdowns happen constantly due to people just don't want to interact.

Steven Hawking said, "It doesn't have to be like this, all we need to do is make sure we keep talking," I'd say yeah, talking to people we disagree with and learning from those discussions, even when the person doesn't change our mind or make a single good argument.

Learning why people think the way they do is the first step to changing their minds. Learning that we are fallible is the first step to self-improvement. Understanding the limits of wisdom is the first step to truly gaining wisdom.