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This shows me where I tend to go wrong. It seems every time I try to empathize with an opponent, they come back with this idea that I can’t possibly understand their viewpoint: maybe because they’ve already made up their mind that I’m stupid, and they’ll say anything at all to prove THAT point rather than their actual argument. Because, hey, if I’m stupid, then it doesn’t matter who’s right... right? But what I’m doing is still trying to empathize based on MY perspective and not really empathizing from theirs. What I’m really doing wrong is trying to argue with someone who’s only purpose is to make themselves feel good about their opinions with no actual interest in learning anything.

Although, one place where this technique never works on my is when the car salesman says, “what can we do to get you into this car today?” I’ve never actually said it, but my thought is, “well, you can start by not asking that cliché question.