The problem is that most of the things we argue about are not empirical. And if i have a particular viewpoint about some social force and I never see it put into practice,  it's hard to know how we're going to make progress in those areas. There are some fields in which fet back with reality is definitely possible. Is just we're not doing it by now. The people who have the least reason to know with any certainty whether they're right or not are the ones who feel the most strongly about it.