Partisan straw men
So, as I was expressing objection to a political rant by a good friend of mine, I realized what it is that's really bothering me about politics.
My description for my feelings has been, "I'm allergic to partisanship." Also, "It's more complicated than that, for almost all values of 'it'." I realize now that these things are pretty much the same rant.
It's certainly not that I'm bugged by people having strong opinions. I have piles of my own. And it's not really about loyalty to value sets or even political groups. It's about the tendency we have to shoot down the straw man we create of our opponent rather than our actual opponent. When you start ranting about how some group is stupid, irrational, or hypocritical, odds are that you're avoiding what they're actually saying.
For example, I often see angry critiques of the hypocritical pro-life movement that just wants to punish women by shackling them with unwanted pregnancy and children. (Almost a direct quote from some conversation thread I was in.) But the real position is that when life begins at conception, a 2-day-old fetus has ALL the rights of the mother, and thus her needs, while not irrelevant, do not trump its existence. I find very little that is contradictory in this position, which is not the same as agreeing with it.
When you make the former argument, you are clearly more enlightened and your opponent is clearly evil or stupid. When you take a deeper look, your debate must be much more nuanced. And I think it's that nuance that we don't have right now. That kind of nuance helps us *gasp* find common ground and move forward.
I think the biggest problem is that when you talk too much to people who all agree with you, these straw men get to be more and more flimsy. And you start thinking that they actually represent the viewpoint you oppose. And then we've put up a huge barrier to actually accomplishing anything -- nobody actually knows what anyone else is trying to accomplish, but everyone thinks they do.
My description for my feelings has been, "I'm allergic to partisanship." Also, "It's more complicated than that, for almost all values of 'it'." I realize now that these things are pretty much the same rant.
It's certainly not that I'm bugged by people having strong opinions. I have piles of my own. And it's not really about loyalty to value sets or even political groups. It's about the tendency we have to shoot down the straw man we create of our opponent rather than our actual opponent. When you start ranting about how some group is stupid, irrational, or hypocritical, odds are that you're avoiding what they're actually saying.
For example, I often see angry critiques of the hypocritical pro-life movement that just wants to punish women by shackling them with unwanted pregnancy and children. (Almost a direct quote from some conversation thread I was in.) But the real position is that when life begins at conception, a 2-day-old fetus has ALL the rights of the mother, and thus her needs, while not irrelevant, do not trump its existence. I find very little that is contradictory in this position, which is not the same as agreeing with it.
When you make the former argument, you are clearly more enlightened and your opponent is clearly evil or stupid. When you take a deeper look, your debate must be much more nuanced. And I think it's that nuance that we don't have right now. That kind of nuance helps us *gasp* find common ground and move forward.
I think the biggest problem is that when you talk too much to people who all agree with you, these straw men get to be more and more flimsy. And you start thinking that they actually represent the viewpoint you oppose. And then we've put up a huge barrier to actually accomplishing anything -- nobody actually knows what anyone else is trying to accomplish, but everyone thinks they do.