Greetings,
To dismiss criticism or opposition, politicians often casually throw around adjectives like “Radical” and “Extreme”. They may even be right… no matter the issue, there WILL BE some radical group waving the banner for it. But the unsaid, inescapable, necessary implication is that “radicals” and “extremists” are the ONLY people who support those ideas while “Real Americans” never would, and that’s a lie. Liars who use this technique count on their audience to confuse an idea with supporters, paint all supporters with the stain of the worst, and never dig deeper into the merits of the idea itself. It’s a subtle but a powerful technique; as subtle and powerful as the difference between civil disagreement and civil war…
We all break the world into “we’s” and “they’s” because it’s a necessary cognitive shortcut. The problem comes when a “we” wrongly dumps all the “them” into in the same bucket, regardless of differences. Everyone’s subject to this fallacy and most of us try to minimize it when we realize it, but some people lean into it instead. This sloppy labeling is most visible in politics, and these days it seems most visible to me in Republican response to policies our country desperately needs. Yes, there are actual Communists, Anarchists, and Marxists in the world, and yes, they may have bad ideas or oppose ones that you like. But other people, sometimes MANY other people, may share the ideas for non-ideological reasons of their own. People who use this distortion technique count on slurring a large group with an insult deserved by only a few, intentionally ignoring the vast middle. Then, with the insult delivered, the content of the idea can be safely ignored. The way some elements of the Right mindlessly and consistently deride broadly supported policies as “radical left” is hard to attribute to accident.
Certainly ‘radical left’ groups like the ELF or EarthFirst! support more aggressive action on Climate Change, but so do 65% of Americans at large and 78% of people worldwide.
Economic equality is an idea from the admittedly radical US Communist Party, but it’s a lie to lump it in with a higher minimum wage. 71% of our fellow Americans (90% ‘Liberal’ and 44% ‘Conservative’) support a raise.
Abortion rights are supported by groups as radical(?) as Planned Parenthood, but it’s not a fringe position. In 2021, 61% of Americans thought abortion should be legal the first trimester.
I couldn’t find ANY radical Left group organized around Single Payer Healthcare, though we’re told it’s the centerpiece of Socialism. Maybe they’re all infiltrating the moderate groups like HealtCare-NOW and Physicians for a National Health Program. They’d have lots of cover from the 70% of Americans who support Single Payer!
Marxists get old, but again, there seemed to be no cells devoted to Social Security except the fairly bland Social Security Works. Maybe this Socialist program is too deeply entrenched; 85% of Americans say it’s more important than ever, and 77% would increase Social Security taxes to preserve it.
Nuance might be either a cause or a casualty of a country coming apart at the seams, but small details in words can lead to vast chasms in concepts. Of course, Progressives can have really, really bad ideas, but not agreeing with an idea doesn’t make the idea radical by itself. We all use political labels, but we all owe it to each other to peel the label off and look at the idea beneath. Too many people and politicians sling the slur, go no farther, and expect us to stop thinking with them. Let’s all be aware, and when we see these sloppy labels, let’s all ask who is labelling and who is being labelled, what they want us to ignore, and most importantly, why.
Make a great day,
Digging Deeper…
Two-Thirds of Americans Think Government Should Do More on Climate, Alec Tyson and Brian Kennedy at Pew Research Center, Jun 2020
Republicans in Congress are out of step with the American public on climate, Samantha Gross at Brookings Institution, May 2021
Trump is out of touch with Republican voters on climate change, Quill Robinson on The Hill, Oct 2020
36 Organizations Helping Solve the Climate Crisis, FoodTank, Oct 2020
Public Support for Action on Climate Change, Stokes, Wike, and Carle, Pew Research Center, Nov 2015
If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, Plilosiblog, Dec 2013
Five Radical Climate Policies Most Americans Actually Like, Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic, 2019
Majority Of Americans Support Abortion, Poll Finds — But Not Later In The Pregnancy, Alison Durkee in Forbes, Jun 2021
Opinion: Joe Biden proposes radical leftist health-care plan, Paul Waldman in Washington Post, Jul 2019
Single Payer Polling, Healthcare-NOW!, polls through 2019
70 percent of Americans support ‘Medicare for all’ proposal, Julia Manchester in The Hill, Oct 2018
Public Opinions on Social Security, National Academy of Social Insurance
Voters Can Spot Radical Left-Wing Policy- Texas’ special election shows Americans are savvy enough to not fall for the Biden spin., Karl Rove in Wall Street Journal, May 2021
Your FAUX Moment of Zen…
Take a moment to enjoy your favorite (or your grandparents’ favorite) FAUX News hosts filling air time on Election night as issue polling numbers scroll past, destroying their narrative of 25 years in real time…
