In a conversation with a neighbor, I caught myself thinking: "What a stupid statement. How ignorant can you be?" I then tried nuanced argumentation to explain something to someone who had clearly made up his mind and had no intention of changing it. I could have left it at that and walk away. Chalked it up to "different people, different opinions, live and let live”. But that wouldn't have changed the reality of the topic we were discussing and, ultimately, it left me with a very sobering thought: regardless of political affiliation or worldview, many of our everyday societal debates happen without anyone actually thinking them through. What we're left with is snackable one-liners and false opposites, and neither will solve the problems we're supposedly arguing about.