We hand-wringing, bleeding-heart lefties need to change tack. (I’m generalising: political views exist on a spectrum, and some moderate conservatives are open to debate.) So, the hope-expressed by some liberals-that political change can happen by keeping debate open is somewhat optimistic, and perhaps even deluded. Far from viewing it as desirable to subject their political beliefs to reasoned evaluation and criticism, many conservatives view reason as a corrupting influence. Conservatives, traditionally, base much of their politics on gut feelings or intuitions-what Edmund Burke in the 18 th century called ‘prejudice’, and what Leon Kass has more recently termed the ‘wisdom of repugnance’. Then there is the fact that ‘engaging in political debate’ and ‘revising one’s political views in the light of rational argument’ are themselves hallmarks of liberal thinking, but not of conservative thinking. My Facebook feed today is full of posts and debates by compassionate, liberal people. Sure, social media can be a powerful and unregulated force for good, and we can all share our views through Facebook and Twitter-but, given that people tend to follow those who roughly share their views, we’re preaching to the converted. The British unwillingness to discuss politics was illustrated today by the sway of the ‘shy Tories’: the people who voted Conservative, but who kept quiet about it in the run-up to the election, and certainly didn’t tell the opinion polls.Īnother reason is that the voice of the Murdoch-owned, pro-Tory press is much louder than the voice of reason. We’re much more comfortable talking about the weather, who might win the X Factor, or Kim Kardashian’s arse. It would, in some circles, be rude to raise the topic of politics over dinner, and to try to change someone’s mind about their political views-well, that’s frankly out of order. One is that, in much of British culture, people are uncomfortable with debate about politics. But-depressingly-I’m far more sceptical than I was yesterday about how much of a difference we can make with political debate. I’m attracted by the view that there is such a thing as progress in politics. I am attracted by the view that we should all keep the debate open, discuss our political views, take other people’s views into account, and revise and improve our own as we all benefit from this dialogue. Sometimes, late at night, when my brain is too tired to do anything fancy and I spot an offensive tweet by a UKIP supporter, the urge to murder them in 140 characters is too difficult to resist.) Did I do the wrong thing? Should I have kept my Conservative friends? (Admittedly, I don’t always engage constructively with them. Usually, I try to remain engaged with such people in the hope that I might be able to change their views through debate.
(Thankfully, none of my friends ‘like’ the UKIP page.) Life is too short, I thought, to hang out with people who hold abhorrent political views, even if it’s just online. One of the first things I did after seeing the depressing election news this morning was check to see which of my Facebook friends ‘like’ the pages of the Conservatives or David Cameron, and unfriend them.
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