How to debate liberals

Stewart W. writes:

I must tell you that of all the conservative blogs I read, yours has been most instrumental in helping me to build my intellectual foundations. In conversations with some of my liberal and “conservative” acquaintances, I’ve been able to hit them before their planes even left the ground, as it were. Not only fun, but in many cases it has had a manifest impact on their political thinking.

LA replies:

Thank you. I love your phrase, “hit them before their planes leave the ground.” That’s exactly what conservatives or traditionalists need to be able to do. Instead of always accepting the liberals’ premises and being sucked into their orbit and fighting the battle on their terms, we need, first, to have worked out and be standing solidly on our own position which is different from theirs, and, second, we need to understand liberalism well enough that we can expose the real meaning and tendencies of the liberals’ assumptions the moment they attempt to launch their arguments, and then re-establish the debate on our terms instead of their terms.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 01, 2007 02:33 PM | Send