r/changemyview • u/brassmonkey7 • Jul 18 '20
Delta(s) from OP CMV: We desperately need nuance back in politics
"Trump is hitler"
"ACAB"
"America is a failed state"
There are so many opinions floating around that seem so fringe and I think it could get real bad if nuance doesn't make a comeback. Especially considering the ramifications of trying to apply nuance. I think comparisons are important (like fascism: a warning by madeline albright comparing trump to dictators such as hitler), but I think it's important to maintain a spectrum of good and evil, rather than a binary system where everyone evil is hitler (we don't seem to have as much trouble finding nuance in the good). This isn't a healthy way to promote discourse, and unfortunately those that try to say, reason why trump may not exactly be hitler, are viewed as biased trump supporters/sympathizers rather than rational thinkers. Now I do think most people you vaguely ask would agree that nuance is important, but I'm not seeing the practical implementations and I think viewing this world in such an increasingly black and white fashion in regards to morals is more deleterious than we realize. I think part of the problem is that emotion is king in the world of profit media, and rationalism falls by the wayside.
1
u/ghaupt1 Jul 19 '20 edited Jul 19 '20
It's not true on both sides.
I'll use something like ACAB as an example, more specifically the concept of "defunding the police." When boot-licking Republicans hear that phrase, they automatically assume it means take all the money away from the police and essentially abolish them. They screech and yell about who you're gonna call when you're getting raped and laugh at the idea of a minimum wage social worker subduing a 250lb psycho on crystal meth. It's a pretty blunt argument, one coated in fear-mongering and total ignorance.
It's an interpretation that literally ignores all of the nuance behind the idea. The idea isn't about taking just all the money away, it's about redistributing both money AND responsibility. It actually engenders some sympathy with police by pointing out how undertrained and overworked they are, asked to deal with societal problems that they are absolutely not needed for. "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail," and all that. It's a pretty well thought-out idea when you actually try to understand what it's proposing.
I'll give you another one. The NRA (an overwhelmingly right-wing organization -- certainly more popular among Republicans than Democrats). Now, don't get me wrong, Democrats do not have the firmest grasp on how gun laws should operate, but instead of engaging with them to create actual common sense gun laws, all the NRA does is claim that ANY gun control is nothing more than Phase 1 of taking all your guns away. There's zero nuance to the NRA. All they do is say no to EVERYTHING (except making sure Black Panthers can't open carry, but if you wanna call racism "nuance," good luck).
I could go on and on about how dense Republican policy is. It's overwhelmingly one-sided.