Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
I've come to see it as less a constellation of beliefs as conflicting narratives...
You've actually seen this sort of thinking become explicit lately - we have a particular narrative in which the following people are good and the following are bad, and noticing exceptions or nuance would challenge this narrative. When cast in this way, it becomes a little easier to see how people with different ideological perspectives can look at the same world and see completely different things.
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Absolutely. Reason is a thin crust over a morass of emotional needs and irrational beliefs. That's why these stories are typically crafted as narratives. And what do we know about popular narratives? That we like them to have heroes and villains, to be unambiguous, and to be emotionally satisfying. Complexity and nuance are irksome if they interfere with a satisfying narrative. This simplification in the service of narrative is just as entrenched on the left as on the right, and just as toxic to rational discourse.