How to Persuade Your "Enemy"

Sep 19, 2020

Irshad Manji has a lot of experience trying to persuade those who really don’t want to be persuaded.

Early in her career, Irshad wrote two influential books that advocated for a reformed Islam. In conversations with religious conservatives around the world, she found that a combative style did not help her win adherents for her cause; instead, she started to acknowledge their views—before proudly arguing for her own. Now, Irshad runs the Moral Courage project which uses a novel pedagogical approach to make progress on contested issues like racism without shaming its participants.

On the latest episode of The Good Fight, Yascha Mounk talks to Irshad about why we should not judge those who disagree with us and how we can hope to persuade them of our own positions.

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GollumSep 22, 2020

I am about halfway through this podcast and just wanted to comment how much I'm enjoying it. I'm finding the tips about showing respect to people who disagree with you so helpful. Especially loved the story about your Black student and her Confederate flag flying friend.

I have a lot of Trump supporting family members who are always trying to bait me into political debates, which tend to get very heated very quickly. It's exhausting and so frustrating. After each conversation I'm beating myself up over things I should have said...you're absolutely right that it's hard to think clearly and rationally when the flight or fight part of the brain takes over. The tips to remember to breathe during these convos and to ask lots of questions from a point of trying to understand (rather than debate) are so helpful. I go into every one of these discussions thinking I need to "win," and always come out feeling angry and frustrated, as do my family members. I'm so glad I subscribed to Persuasion - been looking for a website like this for ages.