A sainted warrior

If you have ever wondered how compassionate, intelligent, moral and enlightened people can believe in cruel, stupid, perverted and self-destructive truths, there is a straightforward progression to the introduction of seditious ideas into the minds of human beings.

An extreme proposition is thrust into the limelight.
Most 'normal' people react with horror to said proposition and a flurry of debate takes place, with the defenders of the outrageous proposition finally offering a watered down version of the idea, which is then accepted with a sigh of relief by the 'normal' brigade.
The unthinkable has become acceptable and in time it becomes the orthodoxy and therefore ripe for another assault.
And so it goes until the original extreme proposition has been reached sometimes even exceeded, and no one can remember when such a position was not acceptable. 

The only way to combat this inevitable progression is to stand back from the issue(s) at stake, view with a humble heart and set aside your ideological goggles (not easy). And what is even more difficult is that if you spot a flaw in your worldview it is extremely difficult to deny years of painstaking study, accumulated recognition and status to buck the collective opinion.

Consider for example those who have been pushing the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth and how difficult it must be to change your position, even in the face of accumulating evidence to the contrary, when your job, career, income and reputation are on the line. It would require the courage of a warrior and the ethics of a saint and how many of those have we encouraged during the last 50 years of politically correct ideological warfare?