Here is a bit of self reflection. I've noticed that I occasionally become overwhelmed with revulsion at certain behaviors and my mind is then made up. I'm an open-minded person by nature, but there seems to a mechanism at work that keeps me from carrying this too far. I previously took this approach more logically, writing a blog post entitled This I Believe. I'm glad I did that as it has helped me to understand the world better. Certain things are obvious to me and I will not let myself be gaslit.
Logically, I say these are things that I'm > 95% sure of. But that's intuition. I don't have a spreadsheet for each thing I believe. Rather, one of the functions of emotion is to fortify beliefs. A good rule of thumb, perhaps, in expressing such strongly held beliefs is to use I-language. For example,
In hearing Democrats speak about Russia, I have been repeatedly overwhelmed with the feeling that they are catastrophically wrong. This has made a profound impact on me and one that I can't / don't want to forget.
This seems less threatening than:
Democrats continually lie about Russia and exaggerate the threat it poses to the West. Western elites are evil in fomenting hatred against Russia based upon such lies and exaggerations.
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