So many of my conversations run into this kind of argument:

Me: Advocates some form of caring about what is true and consistently upholding liberal principles.

People: That won’t work and people won’t do it. You need to do something else.

Me: What other than caring about what is true and consistently upholding liberal principles can help to create a society in which more people care about what is true and uphold consistent principles?

Them: You need to stop wanting that kind of society and advocate for something else instead.

Me: No.

In reality, if I ever utterly despair of being able to do any good at all in the realm of advocating for evidence-based epistemology and consistently liberal principles, what I will do is remove myself to my tiny little cottage by the sea, disconnect the WiFi and spend the rest of my days walking, swimming in the sea, reading murder mysteries, doing embroidery and writing my children’s fantasy novel about a world of mythical beings hidden inside Epping Forest that only children can access.

And hope that I die before everything falls apart to an extent that I can’t even do that.

There is no Plan B where I can dedicate myself to arguing for not caring about what is true and some form of illiberalism.

I have one programme.