Reply #11: Five years ago, critical thinking was not the strong point (at least

[salin]

in terms of politics), something has happened in the intervening years that have encouraged this person to apply their critical thinking skills (apparent in other areas) to this person's political thinking. Really transformational. I do think more will and have surfaced. I think that being able so shake off black/white binary thinking on issues/politics is a HUGE step towards being able to consider different types of political solutions to problems.

You hit the nail on the head - critical thinking - and its emergence among more. Sort of like a chunk of the population is shaking the sleep out of their eyes and starting to realize it is worth the time/energy to start questioning WHY things are as they are... leaving a great openness to the next natural question which is - so what shoud I/We do to begin changing how things are...