Relational

When you're caught in the grip of a powerful feeling that you can't easily explain, you're susceptible to someone else's narrative. I worry that we put separating allies from enemies ahead of addressing problems. "Health care is a human right" is just the latest example of clinging to positions while stubbornly ignoring interests. It further strengthens our shared habit of infrahumanizing those we recognize as other. If we could make the implicit emotional yardstick into an explicit step in filtering, we might root it out and do a better job assessing evidence.