Much confusion surrounding modern public debate is dispelled once we realize that one side argues in bad faith.
This is not done by accident nor oversight. Bad faith in debate is a core dogma of the partisans currently dominating all world institutions, the groves of academia, the bullpens of the media, the halls of power and the boardrooms of industry.
To be sure, all sides of any argument may have partisans who disregard courtesy, logic, and honesty in their zeal. True enough. But one side in the modern public debate adheres to a philosophy that condemns bad faith arguments as illegitimate.
Only one has standards, which, alas, they occasionally betray. The other side has hypocrisy. By definition, a standard only applied to enemies, and never to oneself, is not a standard, hence cannot be betrayed.
The other side promotes bad faith arguments as their special province, justified by necessity and history, et cetera and ad nauseum. Factual correctness is optional. Political correctness justifies all.
Which side? Surely this too clear to bear repeating.
They have called themselves Leftists or Progressives, or even, ironically enough, Liberals, but they change their names frequently.
Such name changes are done for rhetorical reasons, as propagandistic rebranding, and is another example of debate in bad faith.
For the purposes of this column, let them be called Woke, despite that this term, like all their terms for themselves, is misleading or downright deceptive. Awake is the one thing they are not.
Read the remainder of this entry »
