People need some notion of the current state of the world in order to have a meaningful opinion of how to change it. Most people think that income taxes on the rich ought to be raised and most people think that 33% is an ideal marginal tax rate for the rich, but the rich already pay more than 33% on their marginal income.
Or there's the position that we ought to balance the budget by cutting foreign aid.
Or the idea that we shouldn't accept any level of radioactivity in our food.
> People need some notion of the current state of the world in order to have a meaningful opinion of how to change it.
It goes without saying that if you want to get from here to there, you need to know where 'here' is. But I'm arguing that political debate is rarely about how to get from here to there, but rather is about which 'there' we should be heading for in the first place.
Do you think the commonplace opinions that you've described are the result of people misjudging circumstances, and drawing incorrect conclusions about them, or do you think they're not even evaluating circumstances, but merely projecting values onto the world?
Or there's the position that we ought to balance the budget by cutting foreign aid.
Or the idea that we shouldn't accept any level of radioactivity in our food.