New post at The Conversation ... "Don't shoot the messeger..."

Over at The Conversation I have a new post "Don't shoot the messenger when confronted with inconvenient ideas". Check it out!

I comment on a range of issues from the James Damore case to denial of climate change science. My point is to deplore the strong human tendency not only to reject inconvenient messages but to view the bearers of certain kinds of messages - disliked messages on intensely politicised topics - as therefore ill-intentioned people who are not even worth listening to (and who perhaps should be punished in some way).