one of the aspects of the last couple of years here in the United States it gives
me a lot of grief is the manner in which the Democratic establishment has tried
to demonize Trump supporters I personally don't believe that you know
people are born problematic or they are born with racist or and Hindman
predispositions these are social artifacts the manner in which the
Democratic establishment has tried to blame Vladimir Putin Facebook for the
loss of the election Hillary's lost painting those who voted for Trump as
Stooges of the KGB or of Facebook or Cambridge analytical I have no doubt
there was some influence there but I'm appalled by this polarization because
when you demonize those who voted against you then there is no chance of a
democratic debate you've lost it completely then you go into a state of
civil war there are two ways of approaching a difference of opinion
there are two ways of criticizing somebody else's worldview one is an
internal clique critique and another one is an external critique the external
critique is to say to somebody your assumptions on which you base your whole
analysis are wrong that doesn't get you far it's like saying to a Muslim that
you know your belief in Islam is wrong you may think that is wrong but the
conversation ends there so external critique is not a way to relate to
people it's not even a way to understand other people so when I'm asked how do I
approach differences of opinion and so on I say well through internal critic
internal critic means this let's take your assumptions for granted let's
assume that you the world is as you as human to be but
now let's see whether we reach through a process of logic your conclusions given
your assumptions because if I can convince you that your conclusions are
not consistent with your own assumptions then it is a chance we can have a
conversation so when I was referring to the Greek debt crisis to Christine
Lagarde who was representing the Muslim managing that and still is the managing
director of the International Monetary Fund I would never walk into an office
and say look your understanding of the world sucks because capitalism is an
unfair and ridiculous system that would be the end of the conversation with
equivalent to saying to a Muslim that Islam is a bad idea
so what what my strategy was and I believe that was valued at least not
just in order to gain some powers of persuasion but in order to help my own
thinking evolve and mature to say okay let's take your liberal or neoliberal
view of capitalism for granted is what you're doing English today consistent
with your own views about capitalism and at that point you realized that there is
room for agreement for or at least for agreement on things that matter and
which would made a difference to your suffering people back in Greece so I
think that is fundamental if I were in a room with somebody who had voted Trump I
would first want to listen to their reasons for voting for Trump secondly
try to be absolutely understanding of the great discontent and disappointment
caused by President Obama when after 2008 he was absolutely totally copied by
the establishment that created the causes of the financial collapse in 2008
and effectively turned against the people who had voted for him let's not
forget that lots of the people who voted for Trump had voted for Obama in 2008
and then go into the internal critic get smarter faster with new videos every
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