Whom do you read even though you disagree with them?

Originally asked

Vox, to writers and thinkers, 9 Questions, 2017

Vox used this as one of nine fixed questions in its 2017 series on intellectual habits.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Richard White said elsewhere, not written here
But Wiebe didn’t have the evidence to sustain many of the assertions that fed his thesis. Many of the things which he said happened in the Gilded Age had happened earlier and other things didn’t happen at all. Nonetheless, it’s a great feat of storytelling to fit so many disparate details into a simple framework. Even though I disagree with Wiebe, I always keep my eye on The Search for Order as a model of historical writing.

Eve Gerber, Five Books interview, published transcript, 26 March 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

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Myra Strober Labor economist; professor at Stanford’s School of Education
I like the introduction where she says that ‘the solution does not lie in government regulation or getting men to do more around the house, although that would be nice.’ I disagree with her about government regulation.
Recorded Sophie Roell, Five Books interview, published transcript, 10 June 2015 source ↗
David Nasaw Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Professor of History at the CUNY Graduate Center
Hamilton – I disagree with him much more than I agree with him. This book is very much a book about a father and a son. The father is painted as the bad guy, and the son is the good guy, struggling to break free. I don’t accept that interpretation, or that framework of analysis. Nonetheless, Hamilton writes with a verve, an electricity, a passion, that’s rare among academic historians. As a researcher, he’s extraordinary.
Recorded Emma Mustich, Five Books interview, published transcript, 27 April 2011 source ↗
Ariel Rubinstein Professor of economics at Tel Aviv University and New York University
Firstly, Bob Aumann is a very special man. I disagree with him about his political views – he is a right-wing person. I disagree with him about his current position on “what game theory is about”. From time to time he expresses views – about politics for example – backed with the authority of the great game theoretician. I don’t like those statements. In spite of this fact, I admire him for his academic work and personality.
Recorded Sophie Roell, Five Books interview, published transcript, 6 December 2016 source ↗
Celeste Ng Novelist
Well, I almost never agree with anything anyone in the current administration says, but I read their press releases and interviews and late-night tweets regularly, because I need to stay informed.
Recorded Sean Illing, Vox, “9 questions” series, 5 August 2017 source ↗

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Sarah Perry, Guy Raz, Celeste Ng, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Massimo Pigliucci, Myra Strober

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