A follow up...

I just want to follow up my previous out-of-nowhere post with the reason why this bothers me.

Lately I've been introduced to a theory about politics. It has to do with piecharts.

Think about yourself for a moment. Think about all your personal opinions. Think about your religion, your politics, your career, your experiences, your grades, your friends, your everything.

Now look at this chart.



The white part? That's a part of the pie that's blown up a thousand, maybe tens of thousands of times. It represents you. The rest? Everybody else in the entire world.

Imagine if you have to convince a large group of people to trust you, or to vote with you, or to agree with your ideas. Let's say you tell them that you're all for the things they are for. Well, now you occupy a larger portion of that pie, because now you're saying you represent a lot more than your own selfish interests. Here's the problem: That's a very unspecific claim. People are eventually going to demand you clarify yourself a bit.

Let's say they ask you about your favorite ice cream flavor. Your first reply, "I like all ice cream flavors!" won them over, but now they're pressing for a favorite. Trapped, you finally confess vanilla. At this point, the pie is divided. What about people who hate vanilla? What about people who are hurt that you didn't pick their favorite? And God help you if you accidentally blurt out that you HATE strawberry. ("What kind of idiot would eat that? Oh, sorry those of you in the back.")

It's just how politics work. We like to complain that politicians pick non-positions while running against their opponent instead of running on their record/what they hope to achieve, but they're here to win, not be virtuous losers.

Think about propaganda. Our side is right for vague reasons! Their side is bad for very specific reasons. We love all good flavors! They're a bunch of strawberry haters.


So yeah, the Phelps, for example, are bad. But being against the Phelps isn't good in itself. Why do you specifically hate them? Why do you specifically hate any group? Just being against a group doesn't automatically make your ideas good/better. Being anti-something is lazy and leads to lazy arguments.