In the abstract, I'm all for encouraging tolerance, reducing antagonism, searching for commonalities and points of agreement, and all that good stuff. But, unfortunately, when it comes to the partisan conflicts, the two sides are far from symmetrical. Calls for tolerance - such as the what you've posted here - are invariably directed at the liberal side. Editorials and op-eds along those lines appear all the time at venues like the NY Times or the Washington Post or the New Yorker, but how often do we hear that Fox News is appealing to viewers about the need to be more sensitive and empathetic to those poor deluded Dems? Ha - not going to happen! And even if we concede the inevitability of bias on the liberal side, too,in general the media to the left of center is unwilling to resort to actual flat-out lies and conspiracy mongering we see from the far right wing. We have an asymmetry here that unfortunately provides the provocateurs on the right with a huge advantage.
I admire your earnest efforts to be fair-minded, in this post and also in others. But another, angrier part of me just wants to wants to fight back and give the right wing a taste of their own medicine, with no holds barred.
That's a very good point, Alex. If we obsess too much about playing nice we can't make progress and can't effectively resist dirty players from the other side.
I should have added that I really love the post. It is hard even to see one's own biases and blind spots, and the only way we have a fighting chance to do so is to remain mindful of the precepts you highlight here.
In the abstract, I'm all for encouraging tolerance, reducing antagonism, searching for commonalities and points of agreement, and all that good stuff. But, unfortunately, when it comes to the partisan conflicts, the two sides are far from symmetrical. Calls for tolerance - such as the what you've posted here - are invariably directed at the liberal side. Editorials and op-eds along those lines appear all the time at venues like the NY Times or the Washington Post or the New Yorker, but how often do we hear that Fox News is appealing to viewers about the need to be more sensitive and empathetic to those poor deluded Dems? Ha - not going to happen! And even if we concede the inevitability of bias on the liberal side, too,in general the media to the left of center is unwilling to resort to actual flat-out lies and conspiracy mongering we see from the far right wing. We have an asymmetry here that unfortunately provides the provocateurs on the right with a huge advantage.
ReplyDeleteI admire your earnest efforts to be fair-minded, in this post and also in others. But another, angrier part of me just wants to wants to fight back and give the right wing a taste of their own medicine, with no holds barred.
That's a very good point, Alex. If we obsess too much about playing nice we can't make progress and can't effectively resist dirty players from the other side.
ReplyDeleteI should have added that I really love the post. It is hard even to see one's own biases and blind spots, and the only way we have a fighting chance to do so is to remain mindful of the precepts you highlight here.
ReplyDelete