What's black and white but not read or red all over? My Blog!
Maybe this is just my left-wing bias, but after numerous "discussions"..ok, "debates"...ok, "arguments", with my conservative friend...friends, it strikes me that there is an interesting dichotomy in looking at our approaches.
Conservatives like to deal in a black and white, you're with us or you're against us, mentality. It's one of the reasons far-right, all-hate radio is so popular. They tell us the answers to all our problems, with no hesitation or sense that it would be one way or the other, it just is THIS way, as we explain it to you
We Progressives dwell in the gray areas, consider all the more subtle sides of any issue, and that makes our opinions far less palatable. It doesn't make for especially good radio....witness NPR. We all want ANSWERS. We all want to know who's good and who's bad. We want to know good policy and bad policy. We want a definitive answer as to what will happen if we choose option A vs option B.
And to me, that's why there are such obvious links between political cconservatives and fundamentalist religious types. They want clear and obvious answers to all the unknowables, foremost among them being what will happen to us when we die, telling us what kind of lives we must lead and things we must say and do, to go to the "right" place when we do die, where we will spend all of eternity.
OK, those are all the observations that are not particularly revelatory. What suddenly struck me recently, in reviewing the discussions/debates/arguments I have with Conservatives is that when I argue, I stick mostly to facts. Few of the examples I use to prove my point have to do with opinion. As Steven Colbert said. "reality has a well-known liberal bias". On the other hand, my conservative friend/s speak in supposition and conjecture and in terms of what might happen if this and that happen. Like the need to hire 16,000 IRS agents as a result of the health care bill. And most amazingly, they don't see it as opinion, they seem to see it as fact.
So the people who like to deal in black and white use opinion as their proof and the people who wallow in the gray areas, use facts as their proof.
And if you need more facts to prove that, let me know. It's just my opinion.
Conservatives like to deal in a black and white, you're with us or you're against us, mentality. It's one of the reasons far-right, all-hate radio is so popular. They tell us the answers to all our problems, with no hesitation or sense that it would be one way or the other, it just is THIS way, as we explain it to you
We Progressives dwell in the gray areas, consider all the more subtle sides of any issue, and that makes our opinions far less palatable. It doesn't make for especially good radio....witness NPR. We all want ANSWERS. We all want to know who's good and who's bad. We want to know good policy and bad policy. We want a definitive answer as to what will happen if we choose option A vs option B.
And to me, that's why there are such obvious links between political cconservatives and fundamentalist religious types. They want clear and obvious answers to all the unknowables, foremost among them being what will happen to us when we die, telling us what kind of lives we must lead and things we must say and do, to go to the "right" place when we do die, where we will spend all of eternity.
OK, those are all the observations that are not particularly revelatory. What suddenly struck me recently, in reviewing the discussions/debates/arguments I have with Conservatives is that when I argue, I stick mostly to facts. Few of the examples I use to prove my point have to do with opinion. As Steven Colbert said. "reality has a well-known liberal bias". On the other hand, my conservative friend/s speak in supposition and conjecture and in terms of what might happen if this and that happen. Like the need to hire 16,000 IRS agents as a result of the health care bill. And most amazingly, they don't see it as opinion, they seem to see it as fact.
So the people who like to deal in black and white use opinion as their proof and the people who wallow in the gray areas, use facts as their proof.
And if you need more facts to prove that, let me know. It's just my opinion.
You should use links from your Facebook more often - I never remember to come here, and when I do I have so many to catch up on, that I don't take time to comment on each post, because I want to read the next (previous) one. But each one of them is brilliant, Jamie, and I'm impressed at how many pageviews there are (unless they're all you, looking here to see if anyone's commented?). But I just can't vote in the Phillies poll - my knuckles would be raw from all the knocking on wood it would take to balance out that much confidence/cockiness/jinxedness! Sure wish we could get an email when you posted... work on that, wouldja, please?
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