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> Can you share your definition of "political type" to make sure everyone's on the same page? I'm not the poster, but here's what I envision they're suggesting
by JeremyNT 5y ago
> Can you share your definition of "political type" to make sure everyone's on the same page?
I'm not the poster, but here's what I envision they're suggesting. The "political type" is somebody who approaches a conversation not out of a good faith desire to come to a mutual understanding, or to better communicate things the conversant may not be aware of, but simply as a transaction that they can use to further some agenda (or, alternately, they view the conversation as a trap they must successfully navigate to avoid having their agenda impeded).
This is either somebody who is already convinced they are right or somebody who doesn't care about what is right. The latter is particularly dangerous - these people are only interested in increasing their esteem within a group and in reducing their "opponent's" esteem. The outcome of the conversation is totally irrelevant to them, except insomuch as it furthers those objectives by scoring "points."
- Kye 5y agoThat seems to set up every conversation to fail as people assume past each other rather than double check their interpretation. Good example: the other repliers who assumed ill intent.
- JeremyNT 5y agoWell, I think it's incontrovertible that some people will engage in bad faith conversations with the intent to only further their own agendas. Sadly, there's no simple heuristic to detect this, and once participants are so far down the road of distrust that this question is on the table, it's unlikely to result in a healthy dialogue. Personally, I assume good faith until demonstrated otherwise - repeatedly. What did the Supreme Court say about pornography [0] - "I know it when I see it." [0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-LB-4558 https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-LB-4558