1.Always use a critical thinking mindset: For me, I try to hold a skeptical view of any established knowledge in my brain, rather than take everything for granted and believing them to be naturally right. This is by no means to let you be hell cynical, but to urge us to get rid of all the stereotypes and prejudices, so that even off-track idea can make their way through. TLDR: 对任何观念都抱着批判性的看法
2.Mutual understanding, I know this one is hard, people never understand each other at any time in history, that’s why we need 人類補完計画 （笑) . Due to the wild discrepancies in family background, education, and social hierarchy, it is inevitable for individuals to think differently with their shoes. It would be just easy for you to accept the truth and be open about it. Remember, the purpose of a discussion is to “Find what is right”, instead of “Prove I am right”. 鲁迅说，”人类的悲欢并不相通，我只是觉得他们吵闹”. Empathy is god damn hard, but we should try to break our own AT Field.
3.Mindful of FACT vs OPINION. A fact is a statement that can be proven to be true. An opinion is a mere expression of judgment or belief. The fact is an objective reality while opinion is a subject statement. Opinions can be based on facts or emotions and sometimes they are meant to be deliberately misleading. 知识vs信念， 应然vs实然
4. Don’t Appeal to motive and make fewer value judgments.
— — “呸，还不是为了出名”
— — “散了吧，这个人已经被tg收买”
5.Don’t make accusation on qualification. Using Greta Thunberg’s example, someone would say because Greta is using plastic paper cups herself, she is not “environmentally friendly” enough to “qualified” for environmental protection and activities. For “qualification theory” alone, the biggest flaw of this sophistry is that if it is really implemented in its way, the end result will be no one qualified to talk about any public affairs. Anyone who uses “theory of qualification” to attack others can immediately be countered by the “theory of qualification”.
6.Obfuscation: deliberately mix up different concepts. Example: “Oh You are against the marriage system? then how did you get born? “Oh, you dare use their product? their founder is an HK supporter”. people really need to take the matter on its merits. In Chinese, we call it 混淆概念。
7.Focus on the matter itself, never fall into personal attacks. These arguments are also called ad hominem arguments. Rather than against a opposing view itself, ad hominem arguments attack indirectly, by attacking the individuals or groups that support these views. These are just so lame, people, if I ever feel someone is falling into this, there is no need to keep up the conversation, a simple block will make the world better. 每个人需要把就事论事刻在脑子里。
8.People’s views and standpoints are often related to their identity and their objective environment. Employees often defend their company in the whirlpool of public opinion, and students in universities and even middle schools have a full and admirable spirit of guarding the school: therefore, “the bottom determines the head” seems very true. Matter decides consciousness, position decides thought, it is just perfect. Isn’t it? Well, this is rather dangerous. Love can be biased blind.
立场先行是危险的, “因为你是中国人，所以你要支持政府的决定”，你知道我在说什么。
9.Sarcasm is a high-skilled, amusing technique in conversation. but only in certain scenarios. I would say the best practice for sarcasm would probably be at the early stage of a new topic, it helps to raise general awareness and help it spread, it could generally get offensive when it moves deeper into a certain stage, definitely be cautious about it. Also my tips will be to use less rhetorical questions, For those from China, I am sure you know what “呵呵” and seemly smiling emoji implies. To some extent, it just shows the user’s attitude that “I don’t intend to have any effective discussions at all, I just want to shit on your face”.
10. Admit your mistakes and take responsibility for your own behavior, This one is simple but hard. People make mistakes, but we tend to cover it or find various ways to justify it. This actually reminds me of a recent NIKE commercial in Japan talking about discrimination and bullying at school. It is controversial as a lot of Japanese people think the content conveyed is not true. Well for some reason, People from East Asian countries more or less regard national image as part of their self-identity, but we should really just face what’s happening and take it from there. Denying won’t help things get any better.
