From the holiday dinner table to the Twitter fandom wars, disagreements are inescapable. In episode 120 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk through different types of disagreement (e.g. disagreements online vs philosophical disagreements) and consider why we have such a tough time dealing with those who don’t see things as we do. Is the format of social media platforms to blame for the bad faith disagreements that occur on them? What role do confidence and conviction play in disagreement? Can we have a world without disagreement, or is disagreement an inevitable feature of our social lives? And how can we navigate the “shitstorm” when others refuse to agree with us? Prepare to turn on disagreement mode as you listen to two doctors of disagreement reason their way through it all. Plus, in the bonus, they discuss ways of overcoming disagreement, the failure of our education system, and the importance of community in online disagreement.

Check out the episode's extended cut here!

Works Discussed:
Byung-Chul Han, In the Swarm
Catherine Elgin, “Persistent Disagreement”
Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism
Kathleen Kennedy, “When Disagreement Gets Ugly, Perceptions of Bias and the Escalation of Conflict”
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Alex J. Novikoff, The Medieval Culture of Disputation
Brian Ribeiro, “Philosophy and Disagreement”
Ludwig Wittgenstein, On Certainty

Persistent Disagreement

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