Clash of Civilizations Around a Campfire in the Winter Desert

I admit to being a man of the Hinterlands.  When I encounter people from the Left Coast, camping in the desert during winter, they don't seem like they are from the same country as me.  That in itself is not a bad thing.  But it seems like every topic, no matter how mundane, becomes a chance for them to intrude their fanatical ideology.

At times it seems like we couldn't discuss the best shoestrings for hiking boots without hearing their tendentious preaching about racism, Trump, fascism, the next Hitler, what happened to the Native Americans, abortion, capitalism, or Climate Change.  They are emotionally addicted to moral indignation and moral posturing, as if screaming at somebody else long enough proves them to be a good person -- at least better than the person they are screaming at.  How do you tell them politely, "Let's just discuss shoestrings, shall we?"

from abc.net.au

This can get so frustrating.  But maybe that suggests an opportunity.  That same Left Coaster, when they do stay on topic on practical subjects, can be frugal, rational, and a good step-by-step problem solver.  It is like they have two personalities.

Something happens to the human mind when it leaves topics it can touch and see on a daily basis, and goes off into the metaphysical clouds of politics and religion.  It becomes unattached to reality.  It confuses words with actual real things.  It starts to build sand castles based on words that sound pretty or have emotional appeal.

Think of the revolution in European thinking around 1600, when it was learning to stop confusing every issue with religious superstition or slavish veneration of ancient Greek philosophers.

Consider Francis Bacon's Novum Organum.  This title is off-putting to a modern reader.  But the English is surprisingly modern.  The thinking is practical and revolutionary, and the writing is quite eloquent.  But I couldn't find the perfect quotes, today.  Consider searching "intermediate" in that book.

He encouraged people to stop spinning metaphysical cobwebs, that is, to stop running off to abstractions and generalities; and to focus on smaller, intermediate laws and relationships in nature.  That would seem to be the perfect approach to having useful discussions with the Left Coasters around the campfire during the desert winter.