While I'm in agreement with some of the stuff said in the article, I think if it's goal is to convince the people it describes to reflect, it's tone is going to ironically be ineffective - people will dismiss it outright for being self righteous and smug. Maybe that's the weird art of it.
I've talked about this for awhile and a lot of people have expressed a lot of how I feel in this thread, but one thing I'd like to add is the answer to "why" someone should bother to try and be better.
Let's ignore the research that talks about what is the most effective way to convince people of your opinion, it's important and the foundation to why I try and be empathetic and humble, but there is something else - I always want to be correct, and I want to go about it honestly.
At my core, I'm a secular humanist with a heavy emphasis on a utilitarian materialistic/deterministic understanding of morality, with a sprinkling of absurdism. What my dumb labels are trying to capture is that I always want what's best for as many people as possible, even people I disagree with, but I approach this pragmatically and without the illusion that what I'm doing is fundamentally or universally morally correct. That drives my (attempts at) humility because it means that at any given point, I could be wrong. And on top of this, understanding that if I could be wrong about what's best for as many people as possible, or even just myself, then I shouldn't begrudge people too much for doing the same thing. And even beyond that, what I idealize as "right" and "wrong" is entirely personal - I can reason about it, but my reasoning is eventually boiled down to something selfish and subjective.
In the end, with all these thoughts and ideas - a lot of them formed on GAF over the last decade of being on this forum and being challenged constantly and allowing myself to be challenged, I've found a sort of peace and optimism that really works for me. I'm not mad at people who wrong me, I ask myself why and what I can do, if anything to make it better. I don't assume anything fundamentally negative about the people I argue with, in fact I always try and assume the best possible motivation. I try hard to show everyone respect, and I fight really really hard to allow myself to be wrong, to appreciate my ignorance ad an opportunity to grow. I don't always do it, but I try.
I think that over the years I've matured into this structure, and maybe I'm wrong, but I think people generally respect me for it. They listen to what I have to say more than they used to, and they mirror back the respect I try to show them. When I am wrong, I try to admit it and I think it makes people around me feel more comfortable admitting when they're wrong too.
My ideology, my way of living is predicated upon these ideas. I don't know if it's the right way, or the best way, but it's a way I'm always trying to improve on and an ideal I'm always trying to meet. I don't know if what I'm s saying sounds like bullshit or the worst sort of navel gazing self righteousness, I really hope it doesn't. What I'm trying to say is that I think what I want is to see people respect each other more, even people who we feel do wrong, the worst kind of wrong, because that's just what I think good people do - and I want to be good.
