Public Debate Quotes

“The most pressing environmental problem we face today is not climate change. Rather it is pollution in the public square, where a smog of adversarial rhetoric, propaganda and polarization stifles discussion and debate, creating resistance to change and thwarting our ability to solve our collective problems.”
― James Hoggan, I'm Right and You're an Idiot - 2nd Edition: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up

“The upsides of migration have become easy to talk about: to simply nod to them is to express values of openness, tolerance and broad-mindedness. Yet to nod to, let alone express, the downsides of immigration is to invite accusations of closed-mindedness and intolerance, xenophobia and barely disguised racism. All of which leaves the attitude of the majority of the public almost impossible to express.”
― Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam

“There are two ways to dehumanize: the first is to strip people of all virtue, the second is to clear them of all sin.”
― Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

“Ci offendiamo facilmente, mortalmente. Siamo arrivati a pensare che offendersi sia uno dei diritti fondamentali. Pochissime cose apprezziamo più della nostra indignazione, che ci dà, a parer nostro, la giustificazione morale. Dall'alto di questa posizione possiamo sparare ai nostri nemici e infliggere loro gravi perdite. Siamo fieri della nostra suscettibilità.”
― Salman Rushdie, East, West