<...The challenge for me is to sit down with the view which is opposite from mine and ask how it makes sense to the people who hold it. There is most always a way it does. Then I can agree whether to agree or disagree.

Reminded me of a similar quote:

"Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind, it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate--and quickly"



--Robert Heinlein "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long"



(Okay, Lazarus Long was a interstellar frontiersman. Otherwise, not a recommended debating technique.)

It's hard to remember this about human beings. Only in comics do the bad guys brag about how evil they are. In real life, the worst monsters believe in their own minds to be on the side of some sort of virtue, even if it makes sense only to them. Pol Pot thought he was doing the right thing.

As long as we remember that there are objective standards, and that understanding isn't the same as condoning.