“Part of the appeal of the fantastic is taking ridiculous ideas very seriously and pretending they're not absurd.”
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China Miéville 102
English writer 1972Related quotes

2010s, 2016, Democratic Presidential Debate in Miami (9 March 2016)
Context: Poverty is increasing. And if wages are going down, I don’t know why we need millions of people to be coming into this country as guestworkers who will work for lower wages than American workers and drive wages down even lower than they are right now.... You have guestworker programs that have been described by the.... In this country, immigration reform is a very hot debate. It’s divided the country. But I would hope very much, that as we have that debate, we do not, as Donald Trump and others have done, resort to racism and xenophobia and bigotry. This idea of suddenly, one day or maybe a night, rounding up 11 million people and taking them outside of this country is a vulgar, absurd idea that I would hope very few people in America support.

“Folly will run its course and it is the part of wisdom not to take it too seriously.”
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 216

Hillary Jackson (April 7, 2001) "Dillon's new direction", The Gold Coast Bulletin, p. W16.
In a discussion thread https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Q8jyAdRYbieK8PtfT/taking-ideas-seriously#Ym77AptKtD2h9bXXd on LessWrong, August 2010

1977
The First Three Minutes (1977; second edition 1993)