{"id":4187,"date":"2009-02-10T13:02:02","date_gmt":"2009-02-10T18:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4187"},"modified":"2009-02-10T12:28:12","modified_gmt":"2009-02-10T17:28:12","slug":"synchronicity-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4187","title":{"rendered":"Synchronicity"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t have much patience for – I’ll try to be civil, here – really dumb arguments.<\/p>\n

The one that I hear the most on blogs and talk shows, lately, is “you’re just reciting talking points”, stated as a way to simply dismiss an argument or point of view.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a moment to unpack what a misguided and nonproductive statement that is, when abused – and these days, it most usually is <\/em>abused.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a hypothetical example:\u00a0 Say you, a liberal, construct an argument about, hypothetically, a political issue, one\u00a0that springs from your perspective.\u00a0 That perspective has a lot of background to it; your background, your own life experiences, conclusions you’ve reached after a lifetime of thought and – since the issue in the example is a political one –\u00a0bits and pieces of the political philosphy you’ve adopted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given that you are a liberal, is it not reasonable that, in among the bits and pieces of your argument will have things in common with some of the overarching ideas and ideals of liberalism?<\/p>\n

So what are you doing?<\/p>\n