Reply #43: I think open-mindedness refers to the ability to change your mind if [View All]

the evidence warrants it. It may not happen instantly, but you can take in and process new information and decide whether it forces you to modify your previous opinion.

For example, I was a supporter of the Vietnam War in high school, mostly because I'm part Latvian, which gave my family a tendency to be knee-jerk anti-Communist

However, once I got into college, I found that professors I respected were making very sensible arguments against it, and they were able to prove to me that this was not the same as the Soviet Union annexing a formerly independent country.

I also used to be anti-choice, again due to family influence, but then I reached the age where a lot of my friends were pregnant (mostly voluntarily) and heard about the doubts and fears they felt even with a wanted pregnancy. I also heard stories from medical personnel about delivering the babies of very young teens who had been impregnated through incest or sexual abuse. I still have a gut feeling against abortion, but I now would never presume to make the decision for anyone else.

When faced with contrary evidence, a person with a right-wing mindset just starts ranting incoherently or, as Bill Maher so accurately described Ann Coulter's modus operandi, "just making shit up."

You occasionally find a far leftwinger who goes into rant mode when convictions are questioned, but not as often. In fact, such people can easily turn 180 degrees and become rightwingers. They're really absolutists, and if you disprove even one of their cherished beliefs, they immediately turn around and adopt the exact opposite "shopping list."

For an example, see the older neocons, like Norman Podhoretz, most of whom were Marxists or near-Marxists in their younger years.

We notice the rightwing absolutists more these days, because they're more numerous than their opposite counterparts.