We live in a society that has lost all ability to think straight when reacting to something they don’t agree with. Even worse, we’ve lost the ability to digest context or explore nuance; we just react. A lot.

In short, nearly all public conversations around things like guns — or insert any other cultural issues that bend brains — show that we live in an age where we struggle profoundly with digesting positions that are foreign or different from ours. That’s why, for example, the first reaction by those who know little about how guns are used to feed and protect millions of families across this country is to ban them.

It is remarkable to watch this pattern repeat itself every day, no matter what the subject is. All it takes is for one person’s reason to vanish while pointing to a tragic story to justify his position. People will use one story as proof their position is morally superior. Within seconds they often draw other like-minded people into the arena and surround an issue or a person with a frenzied mob.