>What I am *thinking* of doing is trying to put together a
>political and social newsletter for my family/friends to
>educate them on what is actually going on in the world.
>
>I must say, this comes off as a really bad idea. Whether you
>are liberal or conservative (I'm going to lean towards liberal
>if you are asking Valg, though this may not be the case) does
>not matter.

The world is not black and white. I am neither liberal nor conservative. This type of thinking is harmful to everyone.

>I am going to bet that the intention of your
>newsletter is not so much to educate, but to persuade.

If by persuade you mean present the facts and opinions of the world's experts instead of what passes for news nowadays, then yes. My goal is to persuade them to listen to those people who are experts in a given field when these experts talk about that field. I struggle with this myself, re: smoking, but then I'm lightyears ahead of my family in this regard.

>When
>people try to persuade you by telling you they want to educate
>you, they make several assumptions that are arrogant and
>derogatory.

1) They are my family, so they *should* know I am neither being arrogant or derogatory, but rather performing an act of love.

2) I don't really care if they think I'm being arrogant or derogatory, as they will love me anyway.

>First, when you say that you want to educate
>them, you are saying that their opinions are not thought out,
>or supported and that your opinions are intelligent.

Everyone is under the illusion that opinions cannot be wrong. This is provably false. They are also under the illusion that because the facts you know (or think you know) lead you to some conclusion it must be correct. This is also false. I am under the opinion that regarding a great many subjects we have people who dedicate their lives to finding facts, gathering evidence, and coming to conclusions based on those facts. These are the people we should be listening to. Unfortunately this is not the case.


>Not a
>good way to make family/friends happy with you. Anyway, take
>it for what it's worth, this is a bad idea, and trying to
>'educate' people will only cause tensions, and I'm doubting
>you will change anyones mind.

So when you deal with someone you love, and they are ignorant regarding say, CF, and they think it is some sort of devil worship because it is D&Dish and in the 70s or whatever D&D carried that stigma, you allow them to be that way because it will cause tension? Are we so concerned about others feelings that the truth is no longer important? When my mother said that (when I first started playing CF) I wasn't allowed to play the game because it was D&D/devil worship, I told her to play herself. She refused. Then I refused to stop playing. Why? Am I a bad son? Do I normally disregard her advice? No, but I will not suffer an ignorant opinion to be held. Eventually she came to understand that it was not, in any way that isn't completely delusional, anything remotely resembling devil worship, but if I had stopped playing, and followed her advice because it caused tension, she would still be under that mistaken impression.

I've got some other stuff, but finding the original source isn't happening and I don't have time right now so I'll get back to this later.