&gt; Say, on the other hand, that we&#x27;d have confirmed reports about zombies (or evil commie nazi aliens)<p>seriously? so you read a piece whose thesis is &quot;talk rationally and empathetically with people that hold different points of views&quot; and your next thought was &quot;okay, zombies and evil commie nazi aliens, yeah&quot;<p>anyway:<p>&gt; I&#x27;m young and relatively healthy<p>great for you, I&#x27;m not. daily survival is contingent on remaining employed. yippee! the opposition to ACA sees a reminder of why they should oppose this issue every two weeks when they look at their income tax deduction and wonder how much they would get back if a few people that they didn&#x27;t really know suffered some more. what is more immediate than money missing from your own pocket?<p>&gt; when have you last seen people shooting each other on the streets in real life?<p>growing up, guns were a part of every day life. they were tools that you used to accomplish concrete goals. sometimes those goals were defending yourself from wildlife, sometimes they were getting dinner. sometimes, they were for ending your own life. people that are for gun control have seen one too many accident, suicide, or homicide. people that are against gun control see an immediate threat to a utilitarian tool or a way of life. it&#x27;s very visceral and you&#x27;re deluding yourself if you think otherwise.<p>&gt; Gay marriage is something that naturally affects only LGBT people<p>I guess you don&#x27;t know or care about any LGBT people in your life, which is okay, but totally overlooks anyone for whom this is the case. in the south, if you walk around in the wrong town with the person you love, you&#x27;re liable to have someone yell &quot;FAGGOT!&quot; or &quot;DYKES!&quot; at you just for being you. to the people doing the yelling, they are on the front line of a culture war and they see an insult to their moral fiber every time they encounter someone that loves another of their own gender. they get a reminder of why to keep fighting every week or so.<p>these aren&#x27;t abstract concepts, these are issues where the parties involved have real skin in the game. the abstract issues you&#x27;re thinking about are probably things like &quot;foreign policy&quot; or &quot;defense spending&quot; but even there the reason to support them is visceral - every time a redneck sees someone on the street that isn&#x27;t white, they get reminded of the &quot;other&quot; and are filled with a desire to keep them out. every time a family living near a base hears about BRAC they develop an immediate fear for the vortex of pain that is about to fill their lives, require their relocation, and destroy the property value of their home.<p>you are a fool if you think the people involved in these debates consider the issues abstract. they&#x27;re quite concrete.