I've started to see expressions like: "This isn't political. It's principle." This is naïve.
There are various levels at play. I'll name 3:
-Personal
-Principle
-Political
Personal includes the things we feel because they affect us directly.
Principle are the things we feel because they interact with a bigger-picture need or conviction we share with those affected personally.
Politics is how we enact our principles in public, from speech all the way up to laws and consequences.
It's dangerous to assume that anyone else's politics aren't principled. We need to examine what the principles are to be sure that we're making robust decisions, minimising unintended consequences.
It's also crucial for us each to recognise that we're susceptible to social pressure to align with some ideas in our in-group which don't perfectly fit our principles.
#Politics are big and complicated by design, and intention. We can't afford to oversimplify this; we've seen where that takes us.
@Wbtphdjd This is one very clear thread running through all of it.
Another is Christian nationalism (or Christian supremacy) which, by the way, neatly dismisses all non-republican Christians.
Only their (fluidly-defined) in-group matters to them; TFG regularly shone the brightest spotlight he could on that.
I want to add that these aren't the only principles in play among conservatives. But the others have been so swallowed up in their quest for dominance, any moral credibility is trashed.
@CoyoteConscious Right, yes, I agree with you there -- I think some things are definitely easier than decision-makers let on.
(Paradoxically, I'm also convinced that denying positive action by saying "It's too complicated!" is another form of oversimplification! 😃)
I guess I'm just saying we need the appropriate level of simplicity and complexity.
@sumpnlikefaith The KISS principle is broadly useful!
Make things as complicated as they need to be to get them to work properly. : )
@sumpnlikefaith I dunno. I think I've seen way more cases where something gets made complicated so that it's hard to fix, and when you try to fix it, they tell you it's too complicated.
I think we can simplify certain things.