The Brick In Your Face Approach To Debate

We interrupt these crapulous meditations to bring you a semi-serious posting that I've been thinking about for a while. It doesn't say everything that I wanted to say, but ... it'll have to do...

A Semi-serious Posting

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

W.B. Yeats

Yeats is almost right. The best don’t lack conviction, it’s just that, by and large, they lack the intelligence and wit to impart their convictions to others. So often we see issues of importance being hijacked by simple minded nitwits from either side of politics. For instance:

Issue	Left	Right
Refugees	The Liberal Government are RACISTS!	There is absolutely nothing wrong with the mandatory detention of refugees at all, and I think the Howard Government has done an absolutely smashing job.
Iraq War	It’s all about OILLLLLLLL!!!!	Get out your guns, boys – it’s terrorist-killin’ time!
Abortion	Nobody is allowed to have an opinion on this matter except the mother. And me.	MURDERERS! CHILD-KILLERS! FORNICATORS! (etc etc)
Feminism	Men are violent rapist murdering scum and women are lovely nurturing gentle beings who wouldn’t harm a soul.	Hairy-legged feminists hate men!

See what I mean? These are arguments about as subtle as a brick in your face. They’re simple, uncomplicated, easy-to-understand, and ready-made so that the leftist and rightist ideologue never lack something to say. The trouble is that by resorting to this level of debate, important facts get left out. What should become an argument instead becomes a set of accusations hurled by ideologues at one another.

That being said, what alternative is there?
Do we choose to ignore both sides of the debate and go on with our lives? Or do we try somehow to reconcile the hitherto opposing sides of the debate? Well…

Issue	Ignorance Is Bliss	Vile Centrist
Refugees	People sewing their lips together as a protest against the conditions in mandatory detention? Ho-hum, this performance art bores me, what’s on the telly?	Clearly we should let everyone out of the detention facilities now and vastly increase our migrant intake while simultaneously keeping strict controls on the refugee intake of this country and making absolutely sure that no terrorist will get in…
Iraq War	Iraq? Is that a new brand of underwear?	Let’s just reinstall Saddam into Government and forget all about it, shall we?
Abortion	Of course this is a serious issue and … hey, look, there’s a dog licking it’s own balls!	Perhaps we should abort all pro-lifers?
Feminism	I Am Man, Hear Me Snore…	Let's all hate one another!

Different set of clichés, same brick-in-your-face approach to debate. Not that ignorance is bliss or vile centrism aren’t completely unattractive as far as philosophical positions/debating positions go.

So, like I said, debate gets hijacked by ideologues and/or idiots. The majority of people tend to stay silent, not because they don’t care, but because a reasoned discussion and debate on important issues that takes in all the available evidence and builds on itself is just so much more difficult than resorting to the conversational equivalent of the brick-in-your-face.

I know, I know, I’m probably the last person who should be talking this way to others. But there you go…