No, I'm not talking about politics. I'm talking about talking about politics.
I recently read a couple of interesting essays. The first, by economist Robin Hanson, is "Respectable Rants" — his standards for good political rhetoric. Note that he's not trying to limit politicians to a Rain Man style recitation of facts, nor is he urging that everyone only say nice things about each other. But he is asking, a bit wistfully, that political discourse treat the listeners — which is to say, the voters — like adults.
The second, "My Former Life as a Radical," by an academic named Gerfried Ambrosch , describes the thought processes and belief structures of a political radical. In his case, he was a leftist radical, but people on the far right, religious extremists, and all types of "radicals" share many of the same habits of thought.
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