When those who claim to be open-minded are less so
There is a very good article on the "Unherd" site by Matthew Goodwin called
"Have Remainers lost perspective?"
and although the title of the piece may give the impression that he is having a go at one particular side in the referendum, it is actually an appeal to people on all sides - left and right, leave and remain supporters alike not to demonise the other.
Goodwin does say that
"The irony is that liberal catastrophisers engage in exactly the same behaviour that they associate with populists and Right-wing extremists; they overgeneralise; they label others; they engage in Manichean ‘good-versus-bad’ dichotomous thinking; they lose perspective; and they become obsessed with apocalyptic-style scenarios.
Rather than assessing things rationally, and engaging with those who hold different points of view, they cling to comfort blankets, such as catastrophising, distancing and emotional reasoning."
But he makes clear that
"Such irrationality, of course, is by no means unique to the Left. Those on the Right fall foul of the same mechanisms. Populists routinely catastrophise when talking about demographic projections, the decline of white populations, Islamist terrorism or the capacity of Islam to integrate into Western ways of life.
The trouble is that as our value divides continue to rise to the surface, and are exacerbated by social media, this behaviour looks set to become more, rather than less, common on all sides. But at this particular moment in our history, it does seem to be most prominent among those who claim to be most tolerant among us."
If you are wondering what "catastrophising" is, he means the act of characterising an event or pollical opponent as being much worse or more extreme than they actually are, e.g. being unable to tell the difference between "a fringe group of eccentric Eurosceptic reactionaries" and a regime of virulent anti-Semitic, white supremacist genocidal mass murderers who gassed six million Jews.
The article is well worth a read and you can find it here.
"Have Remainers lost perspective?"
and although the title of the piece may give the impression that he is having a go at one particular side in the referendum, it is actually an appeal to people on all sides - left and right, leave and remain supporters alike not to demonise the other.
Goodwin does say that
"The irony is that liberal catastrophisers engage in exactly the same behaviour that they associate with populists and Right-wing extremists; they overgeneralise; they label others; they engage in Manichean ‘good-versus-bad’ dichotomous thinking; they lose perspective; and they become obsessed with apocalyptic-style scenarios.
Rather than assessing things rationally, and engaging with those who hold different points of view, they cling to comfort blankets, such as catastrophising, distancing and emotional reasoning."
But he makes clear that
"Such irrationality, of course, is by no means unique to the Left. Those on the Right fall foul of the same mechanisms. Populists routinely catastrophise when talking about demographic projections, the decline of white populations, Islamist terrorism or the capacity of Islam to integrate into Western ways of life.
The trouble is that as our value divides continue to rise to the surface, and are exacerbated by social media, this behaviour looks set to become more, rather than less, common on all sides. But at this particular moment in our history, it does seem to be most prominent among those who claim to be most tolerant among us."
If you are wondering what "catastrophising" is, he means the act of characterising an event or pollical opponent as being much worse or more extreme than they actually are, e.g. being unable to tell the difference between "a fringe group of eccentric Eurosceptic reactionaries" and a regime of virulent anti-Semitic, white supremacist genocidal mass murderers who gassed six million Jews.
The article is well worth a read and you can find it here.
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