Postulates of Political Belief

General value-neutral statements which seem fairly undeniable

If your worldview hasn’t significantly shifted in the past 5 years you probably need to update your knowledge and affiliations

The world and society have radically changed in the past 5 years. Political association, policy priorities, and technological progress have shifted nearly every variable. If you’re still in the same place that you were 5 years ago… then you’re actually now in a much different place, relative to reality, and some re-examination is called for.

If your worldview is totally consistent along party/political wing lines, then you’ve been brainwashed

There is no set of axioms and values which lead to all of the political positions across the map today. You need much different (and usually partially contradictory) beliefs to arrive at the liberal/Democrat stances on equity, public education, global warming amelioration, and the role of the state (to name a handful of random examples). If you subscribe to every liberal (progressive) or conservative position on every issue then there’s a tiny (<1%) chance that you’ve fairly and independently arrived at all of those positions and haven’t been manipulated or swayed by misinformation and political affiliation. That means there’s a >99% chance that you have.

If you believe what you do because of bigotry or dishonesty on the opposing side you’ve been brainwashed

No major political organization in the modern West openly promotes bigotry or features mostly bigoted messaging or participation. That means if you believe that an opposing side is mostly/extremely bigoted you’re attaching motivations and ideas to that side which simply don’t exist. I recommend listening to what they say about what they believe.

The Myth of the Bigoted Republican

If you see the world in ideological terms, then you are almost certainly privileged

When even Vox acknowledges a political truth it truly must be foundational. Looking at the world in terms of ethics or other abstractions is a clear sign of education and distance from issues which matter to regular people. We’re ALL privileged in certain ways… you’re just much more privileged than most people. Policies are executed in reality, and so there must be feedback mechanisms to test your assumptions against the real effects. If you insist that ALL of your ideological priors are valid, regardless of any real-world information, then you’re living in a media-fueled fantasy realm.

You have the luxury of avoiding the real risks and harms of actual policies. Don’t dismiss the ideas and responses of those who don’t have that luxury.

If you believe the media narratives that are prominent today, you should dig a little deeper

The great perceptible change in journalism today versus journalism 20 years ago is the growth and emphasis of narrative-making: certain subjects and viewpoints can’t be acknowledged or fairly covered and most are covered in highly dishonest and biased ways. If you don’t recognize this (after COVID-19 and the Twitter Files and the prosecution/suppression/harassment of many people across the Western world for simple political belief) then you’re probably only consuming the journalism in question and seeking some alternate sources of information will be an educational undertaking for you.

Pick one issue and look for contradictions and misinformation and evidence of media distortion. If you tend to believe what the legacy media tells you I think this exercise will yield some very surprising realizations.

Thanks for reading.