Public opinion resists change while conversation invites being changed

Evidence

After all, it is public opinion that social media exploits, and public opinion that has no patience for ambiguity, context, or breaks with tradition. Public opinion is not looking to change or to be challenged; it is what wants a band to keep making songs exactly like the hit they once had. Conversations, whether with oneself or with others, are different. The book you are reading—as I would guess is the case with most books—is the result of many conversations I’ve had over the course of many years, in my case with both humans and nonhumans. Many of them happened while I was writing this, and all of them changed my mind. Now, as you read it, this book forms a conversation with you as well. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 482

Categorization

• XREF: Closes the chapter by looping the reader into the conversation — supports the reader’s mixed-method question: Odell’s method here is itself conversational, an assemblage of Schulman, Pollan, Watts, Deresiewicz, which grounds the ‘capaciousness vs. evasion’ verdict. — connects to: Group discussion technique captures opinions as they form rather than correcting them afterward — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2023; Deliberative polling reveals the public would hold different views if it thought harder — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 767; A green public sphere cultivates disagreement to provoke engagement beyond tolerance — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 717