this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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Black/white thinking. Everything is either bad or good, the problem or the solution.
Thinking everything is gray is also an uneducated response to this kind of thinking. Too many people refuse to stand up for a point because they think that 'all sides are bad' or 'well the good side isn't perfect'.
Understanding that things are nuanced is not the same thing as not having opinions.
You can acknowledge that drinking alcohol can cause addiction, act as a social lubricant, and decide if you want to drink. You can even have an opinion on what you think alcohol's role in society should be and what should be done to prevent drunk driving.
I like your example but it isn't exactly what I was pointing to. It'd be like someone calling arresting drunk drivers a "gray area" and choosing not to vote at all on a bill in favor of that. Which of course there are nuances there, but they are nuances that often are irrelevant to the overall conversation and should not inhibit decision making.
I get that, but those were the kind of nuances and perspectives that I was talking about. You can think that drunk driving is a bad thing that should be prevented, without resorting to black/white thinking like: drunk drivers are bad and they should be thrown in jail.
Maybe they should be, but what is the downsides of that policy? What is the reduction in drunk driving and drunk driving accidents expected to be? Who are the drunk drivers and when do they drive drunk? What do they do in other places/countries? Anything about our country/area in particular that causes people to drive drunk? Is there anything else we could do that is more effective and/or less expensive? Could an alternative solution be to run busses through the night? Involve parents? Require alcolocks to be installed in cars?
It's not about whether you are a good or a bad person, or about what your beliefs or values are. In my experience, poorly educated people are just more likely to think in absolutes, which makes sense, because analytical thinking and the ability to view things through different "lenses" and from different perspectives, is something they try to teach you in school.
Believing that everything is nuanced, though, is absurd.
Everything is nuanced, it's just that some things are more or less so, and sometimes the nuance exist but is completely irrelevant.
If everything is nuanced, then "everything is nuanced" must also be nuanced. As such, not everything is nuanced.
Take your post-modernism and shove it :P
How does that relate to post modernism? Give me some resources so I can self crit properly if I am wrong in my statement.
Yes, but the important part is understanding the flaws of what you are standing up for.
Yeah, everything is nuanced, that just doesn't mean that there are no right options.
Intelligence and maturity is holding a view while also recognizing that there are flaws in that viewpoint.
No matter what subject you're talking about, there are flaws in every stance. That doesn't mean you shouldn't take a stance, but too many people act like they have to be 100% behind their stance in order for it to be valid