Ears rarely open until a rapport is established

The author argues that people are more willing to consider a controversial argument when a rapport has been established first, and that a warm introduction matters as much as the argument's logic. Writing a cold argument on X or in a one-off blog post makes it hard to win over readers, while a podcast or stream adds a face, voice and vibe that changes the emotions the argument evokes. The author says they had made many of these arguments for years, some for decades, and that listeners at a recent stream with ThePrimeagen and TJ DeVries had probably dismissed some of them before, before rapport was built.