Yes, this is a second reply. I do think we have common ground. We all want freedom. We all want opportunity. Yet, some people don't really know what that means. They do not understand why the bill of rights is as it is. They do not understand that FREE SPEECH is to protect the unpopular speech. They do not understand why we have the right to bare arms. They do not understand that when you ban something it only impacts innocent people, as those that plan to misuse something won't have an issue with the fact they are committing a crime to get access. They don't comprehend that there is no such thing as FREE STUFF. Someone pays for it.

The big issue really is they don't teach critical thinking and logic in schools, and it is taught less there now than it was in the past. So the more recent you went to public education the less likely you encountered such teaching unless you found it on your own. I am 46 and I didn't get a good exposure to it until I took an obscure course in college. What they taught about it in K-12 was appalling. I have 6 kids. I am familiar with the education system. They teach it less now then they did back then.

I've come to the conclusion that we should be teaching people how to understand appeals to authority, generalizations, ad hominem attacks, etc at a very early age.

If you know those things it is harder to be susceptible to them. If you do not know those things then mostly it is emotions, feelings, gut feelings, and guessing that guide us. We imagine things and suddenly we believe the thing we imagined is real. We delude ourselves.

This happens to smart people too...
Why do smart people fall for this?