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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 2, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Just get good at rhetoric?

"Of course you are not saying that every person has the same innate ability right? We are aware that people who have been exposed to lead experience cognitive decline, or what about child geniuses, do you really think the average 5 year old can be just taught calculus like {insert child prodigy}?"

Iterate that 100 billion times over. Citing psychometric papers won't work, the gap is in the fact that he doesn't believe that "brainpower" is something that can vary! Let alone that IQ test scores correlate with that. First establish the foundations required, then build on top of that..

Basically map out in your head what are the assumptions you take for granted to believe what you believe, then see what assumptions he is lacking. You will have to convince him of the presuppositions/assumptions first before you can convince him of the conclusion.

Convincing someone of anything is an extremely long/difficult/low success rate process. And to be honest with you, most people don't believe things on principle or theory, they believe what their community believes. So the ultimate long con is that you appear as a good faith actor in and outside of the dialogue and he ultimately begins trusting you more and opens his mind towards what you are peddling. Sometimes words and arguments can only do so much.