Why I blog and comment online.

I'm argumentative, without a doubt, but, it's primarily because I want to learn as much as possible from people who know more than I do -- it's very intellectually stimulating!  I mean, I always approach a subject with the belief that I am right, knowing full well that it is subject to nuanced revisions, or total abandonment.

Let me explain.

I'm always stumbling on something that interests me.  Even if it is on the same topic -- say quantitative easing -- there's always some tidbit of information that I might not have considered or known about, previously.  So then I set about researching a position that I think I'd like to adopt.  Sometimes during research, I discover that my hypothesis is wrong, so I abandon the topic and keep that info in the back of my head for future reference.

Or other times I'll come across an assertion that piques my interest, because it either backs up a prior stance
or implausibly flies in the face of what I believe to be true.  Naturally, I examine it closely then research it, test it, and come to some sort of conclusion.

I'll then write down my position, backed up with some of my research, and wait to see if anyone has something to either subtract or add to it.  Over time, repeating this process tends to distill a nuanced but clear belief structure.

For instance, years ago, before the current Second Amendment rights discussion was before us, I formulated a basic idea of my understanding of the issue -- that even under a strict interpretation the US Constitution did not prohibit the regulation of firearms. I then spent many hours researching and reading up on it from all sides, not just that which I agreed with.  And, over the course of a few years, I read up on some differing views and performed additional research on it.  Over time, this developed my carefully nuanced position on the Second Amendment.

I learned to do this in college, decades ago, from this awesome guy.

A huge benefit to all this work is that over time there is a lot of clutter in my head.  I've come to realize that all this seemingly disparate information can frequently be connected to each other, in order to synthesize more complex ideas and theories.  It is a lot more fun when you can see things that others can't, and I'm not talking about hallucinations or tin foil conspiracist paranoia.

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

And that's why I blog and comment profusely: I want to have my pudding...I want to be able to see things that most others can't.