Inevitably, most of what we read is in the first category, and rightly so. But don't limit your reading to the familiar and the comfortable. Once or twice a week, take in something that you deeply disagree with. Read something that you know in advance is wrong and misguided, even morally depraved.
Let yourself take it in. How would you answer someone who thinks this way? What would you say to him to win him over to your own perspective? If he attacked your beliefs at their most vulnerable point, how would you defend yourself?
If appropriate, you might take a step further: If I had the same life experiences as this person, would my beliefs be like his? Who do I know who has changed over the years from a perspective like this one to a perspective like mine? Who do I know who has changed in the other direction, starting from beliefs that agree with my present views, evolving toward these alien ideas that I just read?
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