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Learning to Disagree
Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect | John Inazu
1 post | 1 read | 4 to read
Are you discouraged by our divided, angry culture, where even listening to a different perspective sometimes feels impossible? If so, you're not alone, and it doesn't have to be this way. Learning to Disagree reveals the surprising path to learning how to disagree in ways that build new bridges with our neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones--and help us find better ways to live joyfully in a complex society. In a tense cultural climate, is it possible to disagree productively and respectfully without compromising our convictions? Spanning a range of challenging issues--including critical race theory, sexual assault, campus protests, and clashes over religious freedom--highly regarded thought leader and law professor John Inazu helps us engage honestly and empathetically with people whose viewpoints we find strange, wrong, or even dangerous. As a constitutional scholar, legal expert, and former litigator, John has spent his career learning how to disagree well with other people. In Learning to Disagree, John shares memorable stories and draws on the practices that legal training imparts--seeing the complexity in every issue and inhabiting the mindset of an opposing point of view--to help us handle daily encounters and lifelong relationships with those who see life very differently than we do. This groundbreaking, poignant, and highly practical book equips us to: Understand what holds us back from healthy disagreement Learn specific, start-today strategies for dialoguing clearly and authentically Move from stuck, broken disagreements to mature, healthy disagreements Cultivate empathy as a core skill for our personal lives and our whole society If you are feeling exhausted from the tattered state of dialogue in your social media feed, around the country, and in daily conversations, you're not alone. Discover a more connected life while still maintaining the strength of your convictions through this unique, often-humorous, thought-provoking, and ultimately life-changing exploration of the best way to disagree.
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ImperfectCJ
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This quick, thoughtful read follows one academic year in Inazu's life as a law professor. It's very law-school-oriented, and I worried at first that I'd gotten the wrong idea, but by "January," it shifts, and I was all-in. Inazu's perspective (and the blowback he's received) reminds me of blog posts I've written about my efforts to build community through conflict (Inazu seems more successful than I am at this). This would be a good group read.

ImperfectCJ Fun side note: Inazu loves mentioning coffee shops by name, and one he highlights is Mad Hatter in Durham, NC, which is the baker that catered the cookies we had for our wedding in 1999 (in lieu of cake). 4w
ImperfectCJ And one more side note: If anyone would like to read this as a group, go through the exercises in the book, and discuss (on Litsy or via video chat---real-time conversation might work better), I would be happy to organize. 4w
Hooked_on_books No way! I went to high school with him! Does he mention living in Colorado Springs as a kid? 3w
ImperfectCJ @Hooked_on_books Very cool! He mentioned going back to Colorado Springs to visit his parents one Thanksgiving, I think, so I surmised that he might have lived there himself at some point, but I don't remember him specifically talking about growing up there. 3w
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