> I completely agree with that, but the problem is finding a supply of people to argue with on niche subjects.
Beyond just subject-wise, finding people who argue in good faith seems to be an issue too. There are people I'm friends with almost specifically because we're able to consistently have good-faith arguments about our strongly opposing views. It doesn't seem to be a common skill, but perhaps that has something to do with my sample set or my own behaviors in arguments.
I dunno, for more niche computer science or math subjects, I don't feel like people argue in bad faith most of the time. The people I've argued with on the Haskell IRC years ago genuinely believe in what they're saying, even if I don't agree with them (I have a lot of negative opinions on Haskell as a language).
Politically? Yeah, nearly impossible to find anyone who argues in good faith.
Politics and related stuff is what I had in mind, yeah. To a lesser extent technical topics as well. But, I meant "good faith" in the sense of both believing what they're saying and also approaching the argument open to the possibility of being wrong themselves and/or treating you as capable of understanding their point. I've had arguments where the other person definitely believed what they were saying, but didn't think I was capable of understanding their point or being right myself and approached the discussion thusly.
Beyond just subject-wise, finding people who argue in good faith seems to be an issue too. There are people I'm friends with almost specifically because we're able to consistently have good-faith arguments about our strongly opposing views. It doesn't seem to be a common skill, but perhaps that has something to do with my sample set or my own behaviors in arguments.