- One reason I posted this was to get it out of my system. And hopefully yours as well. This conversation has been going on, in circles, for a very long time. All the while, we get older and more of our liberties erode. If you recognize this argument (and you aren’t rooting for the italics guy
), stick around and let’s plan a battle strategy.
- There’s an interesting psychological facet to the straw man argument the way I wrote it, and it’s not just pure invention. Often, an initially reasonable adversary will become almost sadistic in their enjoyment of your subjugation the more they realize you intend to resist. This fact deserves a post unto itself.
- I’m wondering if I couldn’t learn some important tactics from the gay rights movement. They faced (and face) two types of opponents: there are those, like I portrayed in my argument, who are uncompromising, who may tolerate you as long as you keep suppressing your true nature, but in the end hate you for who you are. People like that are hard to convert, and by and large just need to be fought and overpowered. But there are also people who simply worry about the secondary consequences of your beliefs. They can be shown and convinced that their worries are unfounded, or even if they are, that violating others’ rights to avoid them is intolerable. Win enough minds from the second group, and the first group will be unable to resist.
- Fighting for the rights of the productive individual is a civil rights struggle. There might be ways to frame the fight that resonate with people to cultivate their natural sympathies. Maybe not, but worth thinking about.
- I think it’s important to be uncompromising. It’s important to find out in which category your friends really are, and put them on notice that your patience isn’t without limit. How long should one have to tolerate being forced to materially support a belief system by one’s alleged friends?
- Nothing in the argument as written should be seen as endorsing the idea that the opposing viewpoints portrayed are morally equivalent. I was only trying to show how such arguments tend to progress. But yes, I am right. .
Posted in The Project.
By John
– November 30, 2008
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