What does "embracing reason" mean to you?

Consider all the possibilities and go with the one that makes the most sense.

It’s a passive aggressive way to tell people they are wrong.

@ARE_you_kidding_me Why do you think it is passive aggressive?

I have heard it used in debates like: such and such actually embrace reason…

It means that if you’re dealing with a hardcore feeling personality you might as well just shoot yourself in the head because emotion always trumps logic in these scenarios. lol

It’s how politically liberal thinking can be diced up like so much Holiday turkey.

@SecondHandStoke what does that mean?

I have never heard the phrase before. To me, it means logic and thinking over passions and beliefs.

He is saying that politically liberal thinking is not embracing reason which has some deep roots in truth.

Well, liberalism is steeped in idealism and forward thinking vision. We need visionaries to stir things up and make changes for the greater good, sometimes it is unrealistic, but always better than stick in the mud status quo. If we didn’t have liberal and progressive thinkers we’d all still be living in caves and pushing twigs into Termite mounds. You better believe it was a liberal that discovered how to make a fire and roast that mastodon steak inspite of the fearful protest of the conservative Neanderthals.

This is the way of the world, the traditionalists vs. the innovators, both have their merits.

Gee, my impression is that most conservative thinking is based on being stuck to an old belief despite significant evidence to the contrary?

If thinking completely binary then the discovery of fire went something like this: The discovery is arbitrary, an accident and completely apolitical. That was done by a technical/observant person. The application is where politics come into play and completely explains why we need both forms of thinking and why either on their own are destined to fail. The liberal thinker naturally sees potential first but lacks the deeper more thorough foresight to see the consequences. They stop thinking at “wow” good thing here. More of a good thing is better right. Lets build it as big as we can right in the center of the hut. The conservative thinker naturally sees the consequences first. The conservative is thinking “my god you are going to burn down the house” and they’re right. They fail to get past the consequences to see that the fire can be tamed with precautions. They’ll want to ban fire. Enter the real innovators. They are politically centered and navigate the middle ground taking the best ideas and applying them with proper control. They are the ones who can tell what “just enough” is and are the best of us, the ones who make our path forward practical, safe and attainable. They gave us the fireplace and allowed us to get down to the business of cooking meat and not freezing to death. Depending on the situation a slightly more liberal or conservative approach may work best. This may explain why technical and business innovation is more conservative and social innovation is more liberal dominated. Sometimes the loud voices from the edges need to be heard because they represent boundary conditions but we need the people who who can balance rotting in place with driving off of a cliff. Good thing there are plenty of folks in the center. Too bad they’re the least vocal these days though. In the end you need a conservative foundation for the liberal thought to even exist and you need liberal thought to drag the conservatives forward. The thing is though, that apolitical quiet person who discovered fire in the first place could have told everyone from the beginning how to build that fireplace if they would stop yelling at each other and let him finish talking after he said “oh cool, look fire!”

It means to keep an open mind, even with rednecks who open their sentence with “gee” :D

Choosing common sense over hysteria and/or strict agendas.