In-person conversations and hands-on experiences are what ultimately shifted my worldview. During my undergraduate degree as an anthropology major and first-generation student, I remember holding an ancient hominin skull in my hands while inspecting scientific literature that rebuked my childhood teaching that evolution wasn’t real. In classrooms, I could debate and discuss lessons with students. In lecture halls, I had access to the words of professors and scientists with decades of experience and anecdotes. I began to see that there are many ways of existing in the world
-every Republican, on every social issue, ever.
It’s not even that; it’s just that he talked to people whom he saw as peers who were able to tell him that things weren’t how he thought. And he did it in a context where he had distanced himself physically from a community of people who were deniers.
Right, he didn’t believe it until it came from his ingroup. Which is the same thing with more steps.
None of the words changed… only who was saying them.