Your Politics Are Awful. Now What?

It is the usual practice, when discussing controversial issues, to moderate one’s argument with phrases such as “It seems to me” or “In my opinion”. For the purposes of today’s sermon, I am not going to do that. I’m going to speak bluntly about conclusions I have reached based on disciplined critical thinking and basic ethical principles, and I’m not going to pretend that you’re not wrong if you disagree.

So this is a bit of an indulgence in self-righteousness. But I hope that by taking this tack I might make a larger point which is relevant to our current political situation.

I am a Pagan atheist vegan anarchist. I’m against war, censorship (including the “politically correct” sort), racism, classism, authoritarianism (left or right), capitalism, Marxism, supernaturalist ethical systems, animal abuse, meat eating, police as we know them, the de facto “two party” system, the prohibition of drugs, the prohibition of firearms, and religious fundamentalism. Oh, and littering.

This puts me in a very narrow intersection of the Venn diagram.

And the fact that so few people people are here with me tells me, dear reader, that you are — to a statistical near certainty — wrong about something important. You have some view that is not consistent with informed and ethically grounded critical thinking. (Please see the first paragraph again.)

Maybe you were in favor of the invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq, or think that Obama’s drone war is okay, or that it’s okay to kill a fellow mammal for the pleasure of eating its flesh, or that the legislature or police force has some sort of moral authority, or you favor throwing people in cages for private choices about their bodies (sex or drugs) or for owning items you think should be taboo (guns), or you think that cutting taxes on the rich is a viable economic strategy, or you think that there should be a “hate speech” exception to freedom, or you think that Ronald Reagan was a great human being, or you think that Barack Obama is a great human being.

Or — and this is the reason I bring this up — maybe you think that vile demagogue Donald Trump or war criminal and Kissinger protege Hillary Clinton is going to be a great President, and conversely that anyone who instead is going to vote for Clinton or Trump must be in favor of racism, war crimes, sexism, homophobia, corruption, or whichever sins you find in your least favorite candidate.

In this contentious election season I see people in my social media feed calling for unfriending and boycotts of those who support one presidential candidate or the other. (I mostly see Clinton supporters calling for Trump voters to be declared anathema, but there’s a big selection bias in my feed.)

Now, as it happens, I have had some practice in dealing with people with deplorable ideas. Because you’re probably one of them. That frustration you feel when you see someone express support for Trump or Clinton, that sugar rush of self-righteousness you get when you condemn them? I feel that about you when you express one of the views I listed above. Your politics are awful. But if I were to unfriend and boycott everyone with bad ideas I would never leave the house. I’m stuck on this planet with you and have to try to learn to love you and work with you anyway.

This does not mean remaining silent or taking no action. Anyone who follows my posts knows that I am hardly shy about speaking up! But short of habitual criminals and abusers we ought to strive to condemn ideas and practices, not people. (I try to do this — I do sometimes fall short.) And we ought to reserve boycotts and other condemnation for those who engage in bad practices themselves or explicitly take an objectionable stance on an issue, not for guilt by association. If someone thinks that Trump is a lesser evil than Clinton, that doesn’t mean they support Trump’s racist comments; if someone thinks Clinton is a lesser evil than Trump, that doesn’t mean they support murder via drone.

We also need to try to see the total picture. If you boycott the family-owned D. G. Yuengling & Son brewery because the family patriarch endorses Trump, I’m not sure you’re supporting progress if you then give your beer money to giant corporate criminal AB InBev, which just paid the SEC $6 million to settle bribery charges. The point is that balancing out the total social good and harm done by our choices is often complicated. We need to be careful about about condemning people who arrive at a different total when adding it all up.

And we should try to be aware of how we’re connected to each other. Let’s avoid the mistake one Facebook commenter made when he called for a boycott of a company whose owner endorsed a certain candidate, while he himself worked in sales for a company whose Chairman and CEO supported that same candidate.

Let us have vigorous debate. Let’s argue politics over a beer. (From an employee-owned craft brewery, perhaps.) Let’s each do our best to advocate for a more just and prosperous world. Let’s even yell and scream a little and hurl insults from time to time. Let’s take action against people who actively do wrong. But let’s be very careful about cutting off communications or trade with each other based on stereotypes, hasty conclusions, and guilt by association.

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