Andrew Lloyd Peth, Cori Dayton Peth, Fishie Felicia Winfree Cravens, Brad Elledge, Leslie Price, I think this is an important point from Ace. Many political disputes -- hell, all of them -- involve a clash of two competing values. In almost all cases, both of the values in conflict are actually good values. The dispute is usually not about whether one value is good and the other evil (or lacking any merit); usually its about which value should be prioritized. But I think very often in argument it becomes useful -- in the very, very, very short-term -- to simply deny that the other value (the one that you dont favor prioritizing) has any merit at all. After all, if two good values are in conflict, resolving the conflict may require a messy balancing test open to all sorts of challenge. But if you just deny that the opposing value has any merit -- or merely refuse to acknowledge it has any merit -- the argument is more easily made: This is good, the other thing is not-good, the good thing wins. But this is a terrible political argument as regards the broader public, the LIVs, because the LIVs dont know much, but among the things they do know is that Trees are Nice and Equality is Nice, and, indeed, many things the progressives talk about are Nice Things, and to go out to speak with them denying the Niceness of These Nice Things theyll wonder how Nice you really are, and, of course, whether you Share Their Values (about Nice Things). Youll notice that every red-state senator is currently talking up a blue storm about all the Nice Things conservatives like talking about. Indeed, theyre talking almost exclusively about our own List of Nice Things (freedom, etc.), and not so much about the progressive List of Nice Things at all. I say this a lot, but the one thing that truly defines an LIV is that he defines himself as nonideological, and hes proud of that. (Hes proud that he doesnt bother with much thinking about politics or general political philosophy -- any human being, given the choice of thinking less of himself for a trait or flattering himself for a trait, will chose the latter nine times out of ten.) So when an LIV hears a bunch of ideologically-convenient premises -- like the idea that Equality Isnt Nice and Maybe Trees Arent So Nice either -- from a party, he gets the idea (correctly) that they are Ideological, and thus Not Like Him, and, probably, Also Crazy.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 00:12:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015