Most People Aren’t Capable Of Nuanced Thinking About Politics

Black-and-white thinking is the norm

Everyone is on a team.

They’re left-wing or right wing. Pro LGBT or anti LGBT. Trump or Biden. Pro Vaccine or Anti vaccine. Pro lockdowns or anti lockdowns. Pro BLM or anti BLM. Pro immigration or anti-immigration.

Simplistic, black and white, “with us or against us” thinking is widespread.

Most people haven’t been taught how to think. Most people aren’t capable of nuanced thinking. Most people are only able to hold one idea in their mind on any given issue at a time.

When someone tells you that they’re an LGBT “ally”, you can usually guess what all of their other opinions are as well.

When someone tells you that they’re a Trump supporter, you can usually guess what all of their other opinions are as well.

When someone is on a “team” they are so predictable. They are like an NPC, programmed by somebody else on what to think about different issues.

But the truth is, you don’t have to join a “team”.

You don’t have to choose a side and you don’t have to have the same opinions as your friends.

Let me demonstrate to you a serious example of nuanced thinking.

Here is a brief list of all of my personal opinions on some of the most controversial topics:

COVID Lockdowns:

• I believe that the first set of lockdowns made sense. We didn’t know what kind of virus we were dealing with in March 2020.
• The following lockdowns were a bad idea; they caused a huge amount of harm and did very little to slow the spread of the virus.

The LGBT community

• I’m not an “ally” to the LGBT community. Nor am I an enemy.
• Individuals can have romantic relations with whoever they like. I don’t care.
• “LGBT Pride” is annoying and narcissistic. I don’t like the pride flag and I don’t like pride month.
• Frankly at this point, I wish the LGBT community would just be quiet and just go and live their lives in peace.
• Some LGBT individuals are awesome. Some are just irritating.

Black Lives Matter

• I think black people have legitimate grievances with life in the USA. The BLM protests were an understandable explosion of frustration.
• The official BLM organization was run by scammers, who collected the donated money and bought houses and stock market investments.
• George Floyd was a horrible person and definitely not a hero.
• “Defund the police” was one of the dumbest slogans I’ve ever heard. In areas where they did in fact defund the police, crime increased and more black people suffered as a result.
• Black people commit a disproportionately high amount of crime in the US, so I can understand why the police would treat white and black citizens differently. This is especially true in America where everybody has a gun, and as a policeman, you can be shot and killed in a split second at any time.
• Some cops are racist and have genuine feelings of hatred towards black people. Some cops will purposefully treat black people worse than white people.
• The Cops in the US have an incredibly difficult (and vital) job and should be respected and valued.

Immigration

• Having people from a variety of cultures is a positive thing for a country and I personally love speaking with people from all over the world.
• When the number of immigrants becomes too high, the country starts deteriorating. Housing prices increase. Traffic increases. Hospitals get overwhelmed.
• Some immigrants see women as lesser beings and see nothing wrong with sexually assaulting them.
• Immigrants commit more crime than the average citizen.
• Immigration should be carefully controlled to a reasonable degree to keep the country flourishing, but safe and functioning.

Trump vs Biden

• I don’t like either candidate. They’re both stupidly rich and detached from the problems of real Americans.
• Biden is clearly too old to be the leader of the most powerful country on earth.
• Trump is narcissistic and was born into privilege.
• Neither of them wants to give Americans universal healthcare. Neither of them seem particularly interested in solving the homelessness crisis, or the fentanyl crisis.
• Trump did a great job stepping into North Korea and meeting Kim Jong-Un and no wars started during Trump’s presidency.
• If I was forced to choose between them, I would probably choose Trump. But only because he’s marginally better than Biden. I still don’t like the guy at all (I would prefer to see Bernie Saunders or Tulsi Gabbard).

This is called nuanced thinking.

Most people don’t have the ability to have nuanced viewpoints like this. They’re either on one team, or the other team.

Most people choose a team and then adopt all of the viewpoints of the team.

Most people only consume the political content that they already agree with, recommended to them by social media algorithms.

But you don’t have to be like most people.

Politics is complex and nuanced. And solving problems in society is supremely complicated. If you aren’t capable of nuanced thinking, you can’t understand politics and you can’t solve political problems.

Stop holding such simplistic views. Don’t join “teams” or “groups”. Stop attacking the “other side”.

Instead, take pride in having detailed, nuanced views that don’t align perfectly with either side. And then speak your detailed, nuanced views loudly for everyone to hear.

If enough smart people do this, you’ll bring people together in intelligent discussion, and the issues you’re crying about might actually get solved.

Who knows, you might even stop a civil war.