Fallacies that impede progress

[MorkandMindy]

The Blue vs Red fallacy

A few years ago I completed an online quiz about which party did the President who enacted this policy or that policy belong to. It was only after I was puzzled by many questions and got a fair few wrong that

I realized having two parties was more about passing the blame than anything else. When Chernobyl in the USSR blew the party in charge had no one to pass the blame to, with two parties you can pass the blame back and forth forever.

To take a simple example, G W B bailed out the banks after one bad profiteering scam had collapsed and then in came the other party who just continued the bail outs.

It is my proposition that people stop thinking Blue and Red and think policies.

 

[Ophiolite]

It is my proposition that people stop thinking Blue and Red and think policies.

In another of your threads I said this:

In rejecting socialism, or conservatism, or any "ism" one runs the risk (ensures the certainty) that one will trigger the very knee-jerk reactions you are rightly concerned about. A more circumspect approach would be to seek agreement on the outcomes we desire, rather than the methods by which they are to be achieved.

I'm pleased to see you were paying attention.

 

[Tree of Life]

Policies are good but what really matters in politics is people. It's people who defend policies and people who get elected. Policies don't get elected.

And in order to elect people, you need to appeal to a majority in order to win a vote. Our system has always been a two party system such that liberal folks aim to get Democrats and swing voters behind them while conservatives aim to get Republicans and swing voters behind them. Leaving the party system behind is not practical in our situation. Unless an unforeseeable disrupter were to come along, we could do nothing to plan our way out of it.

 

[thecolorsblend]

I think something that might be helpful would be remembering that policies that work at one time might not work at another.

Tax cuts worked for President Reagan; not so much for President W. Bush. Tax increases worked for President Clinton; not so much for President Obama.

 

[DaisyDay]

I think something that might be helpful would be remembering that policies that work at one time might not work at another.

Tax cuts worked for President Reagan; not so much for President W. Bush. Tax increases worked for President Clinton; not so much for President Obama.

What do you mean by "worked"?

 

[Fantine]

Oh I thought this thread was going to be about the climate change deniers. After all, that might not only "impede progress," but devastate our entire planet...

Can there be any other policy (or lack thereof) that could have such a profoundly disastrous effect on earth?

 

[Tanj]

Under the assumption the title isn't grammatically poor redundancy, I'd like to hear about the fallacies that accelerate progress

 

[Slartibartfast]

Our system has always been a two party system such that liberal folks aim to get Democrats and swing voters behind them while conservatives aim to get Republicans and swing voters behind them.

Only since the seventies.

 

[Sparagmos]

The Blue vs Red fallacy

A few years ago I completed an online quiz about which party did the President who enacted this policy or that policy belong to. It was only after I was puzzled by many questions and got a fair few wrong that

I realized having two parties was more about passing the blame than anything else. When Chernobyl in the USSR blew the party in charge had no one to pass the blame to, with two parties you can pass the blame back and forth forever.

To take a simple example, G W B bailed out the banks after one bad profiteering scam had collapsed and then in came the other party who just continued the bail outs.

It is my proposition that people stop thinking Blue and Red and think policies.

Policies are what makes a difference between blue and red. And no one “came up with” the idea of having two parties in order to be able to shift the blame. Different parties simply have different philosophies.

 

[Pommer]

The Blue vs Red fallacy

A few years ago I completed an online quiz about which party did the President who enacted this policy or that policy belong to. It was only after I was puzzled by many questions and got a fair few wrong that

I realized having two parties was more about passing the blame than anything else. When Chernobyl in the USSR blew the party in charge had no one to pass the blame to, with two parties you can pass the blame back and forth forever.

To take a simple example, G W B bailed out the banks after one bad profiteering scam had collapsed and then in came the other party who just continued the bail outs.

It is my proposition that people stop thinking Blue and Red and think policies.

I think that you may be giving the electorate of the several states, a bit too much credit.

A lot of what passes for “political discourse” is no more than glorified bumpersticker-speech.
Most people have no depth to their political thinking* because is hard and boring; heck, get me away from the eight or so topics that I care about and I’m as ignorant as the average Joe.

Trying to “see the other side’s point of view” is so hard because we’ve been conditioned to automatically reject it and defend “correct thinking”, (this works for both sides).

The Right does tend to be a bit more hyperbolic, (though “The Young Turks” are is left as they come and hyperbolic, so they’re out there, too), and builds flimsier straw-men, (but that might be my jaundiced lefty-eye)?

When we engage with people of differing political philosophies and values where one actually has a face-to-face conversation in a atmosphere conducive to tolerance and understanding, only then can true progress be made!

While it’s fine that we all here argue, everyday, over things, nothing is going to beat talking with those neighbors with whom you know you’d disagree.

We still agree on the vast majority of things.
Letting the differences tear us apart speaks to the obstinacy of both “sides”.



*this does not include anyone here, on CF