To the Extremes

 

A casualty of increasingly divisive culture is a relative lack of exposure to and contemplation of opposing views. But America is only great as our plurality. I regret that we not only no longer consider contrarian perspectives, but even worse our reflexes are attuned to immediately reject and scorn them. 

I’m lucky to have people in my life who are thoughtful enough to strongly hold extreme positions in a reasoned way and to educate me on why they believe what they believe. To be sure, some of these positions I find very difficult to accept. But I respect the viewpoint and the people who hold them. 

Fundamentally, I think that modern discourse depends on that open-mindedness. And I think that societal progress depends on understanding what people want, learning where those wants are coming from, and forging compromises to accomplish as much as possible that can move things forward. 

Conversely, we can choose to not listen, argue more, and get nothing done. I don’t like that scenario. Sure, it feels good to feel outrage with your own tribe and to vilify the other tribe. But, we must co-exist, so to not find ways to interact, engage, and maybe even exchange ideas is to make no progress on the things we all agree need to be done.

As a test of what you’ve been exposed to and how you react to it, here’s an impartial list of things I’ve heard people not only say but defend. Again, not that I agree, and in some cases I am naturally repulsed. But I at least understand the inner logic and personal passion that people bring to these perspectives, because someone has taken the time to explain it to me. What about you? How many of these do you believe? Or how many of these have you heard and dismissed out of hand without the benefit of someone close to you who can explain them to you? 

1. “From the river to the sea” is truly a call for the complete removal of Jews from lands they’re on, and that is justified
2. Abortion is wrong and should be severely restricted
3. All support of Palestine is pro-terrorist and anti-Israel
4. America is so irredeemably racist at its core that nothing less than revolution is acceptable
5. America will do better moving forward if it is a more intentionally Christian nation
6. Capitalism is broken and should be replaced with public provision of income, jobs, housing, and capital
7. Climate change is a hoax, and there should be far fewer environmental regulations placed upon industry
8. "DEI" is so bad it needs to be legislatively constrained
9. Men and women are fundamentally different, and societal roles should reflect that
10. People living in this country illegally should be deported
11. Police should be abolished and society operated in an anarchical state
12. Pornography should be outlawed and its distributors punished by the law
13. Property is theft
14. Theft is a legitimate form of protest
15. Violent protest (against property and people) is sometimes justified

You may very well be offended by the mere sharing of these statements. Indeed, I consider many of these borderline if not outright inflammatory. Yet I can also say, even if I vehemently disagree with some of them, that I know at least one person who strongly believes each of these statements, and has given me a cogent and substantiated argument for their belief. I have to believe you have had contact with these statements as well, so let me ask: are you lucky enough to know someone well enough who adheres to each of them that they can explain to you why they do?

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