committing to a specific ideology is a trap
many smart ppl make the mistake of committing to one ideology and thereafter their intelligence is solely directed toward finding the best arguments to support/rationalize their chosen ideology
Conversation
Replying to
Depends on what you mean by commitment. Tacit support and identitarian clinging are not the same thing.
1
1
There's a difference between adhering to an ideology for Reasons and letting the ideology provide your Reasons for you. Latter is v. dangerous.
1
4
Replying to
the former also seems like it would almost always be toxic tho. can you elaborate on an example in which it wouldn't be? running for political office and have no chance of winning if you don't affiliate with a well-known ideology?
2
Replying to
Similarly, I don't identify as leftist, but people generally label me as such because most of my political opinions and actions converge that way.
1
Replying to
if your independently-thought-out conclusions happen to overlap a lot with a particular ideology i see no problem with that
it's when people become devotees of specific ideologies that they lose the ability to arrive at conclusions outside their ideology's accepted opinions
2
1
Replying to
Also, IMO this hard and fast relationship with ideology is itself a tool of black/white-type political radicals, and I don't approve of its use.
1
2
Replying to
interesting. you're saying you've seen (destructive?) radicals who were vocally critical of ideological possession? care to elaborate? i haven't seen this. most anyone i've ever seen speaking meta-ideologically seems clear-headed, sane, helpful
8
1
Replying to
I'm not saying you're one of those people, but rather that this sort of thinking is used as ammunition by those who are.
That's why I don't like it very much.
(Also sorry about the disjointed threading; I noticed twitter doesn't reliably give notifications in threads, again.)