Daily exposure to adversarial argument can convert contempt into grudging respect.

Evidence

Richard Toomey was one of the few who continued to read the transcripts faithfully every evening. After dinner and a long day at the metal shop, he’d sit in the recliner in his living room, a transcript in his lap. He’d found the reading difficult at first, but he’d persisted. Now he found himself looking forward to the next day’s episode. He felt drawn to the transcripts, he said, in the way he imagined some people got addicted to soap operas. The bench conferences, where the lawyers argued among themselves and with the judge, particularly engrossed him. He had despised Facher initially, but in time that had turned to a grudging respect. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 1863

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the courtroom as serialized narrative, and why transcripts — raw and unedited — hook lay readers more reliably than any summary could.
• XREF: connects to: Refusing hospitality is a visible assertion of adversarial distance. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action , 1601; Denouncing the personality as lie makes the residue easier to dominate — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 77; Repeated exposure to others’ judgments inevitably shapes a person’s character (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Repeated exposure to others’ judgments inevitably shapes a person’s character #corroborates (1.00)
• Denouncing the personality as lie makes the residue easier to dominate #complicates (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 77
• An ad hominem attack shifts the focus from the argument to the arguer’s character #complicates (0.80) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1049
• Self-contempt is the core psychological cost driving people to rationalize #complicates (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 111
• People make untroubled, consensual judgments of evil in daily life #complicates (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3876
• Sympathetic indignation can coexist with reproducing the very moralizing that justifies mistreatment #complicates (0.75) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 756
• Euphemistic relabeling of abuse as horseplay enables willful ignorance #complicates (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 581
• Taking public positions inevitably generates enemies and hostile responses #complicates (0.75) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 350
• Maintaining a stereotype against deviant evidence requires attentional resources people willingly spend #complicates (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1178
• Repeated false accusation can generate belief through sheer illocutionary force #complicates (0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1466
• Judges must abandon adversarial advocacy for impartial detachment #complicates (0.70) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 555
• Disguising wrongdoing as legitimate weakens restraint but not self-condemnation #complicates (0.70)
• Adjudication proceeds through adversarial claims, proofs, and counterproofs to a decision #complicates (0.70) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 17
• Focusing on personal responsibility can dilute a group’s adversarial diagnosis and suppress rebellion #complicates (0.70) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4430
• Adversarial critique is weaker than self-transformative engagement #complicates (0.70) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 263