Sunday, November 25, 2018

Why Have Conservatives Forgotten about Tradition and Turned to Name-Calling? Or, How Can Conservatives Argue Like Conservatives?


Okay, sure, I know that liberals call people names all the time. Hillary Clinton said that half of Donald Trump’s supporters were in a “basket of deplorables.“ That was an awful thing to say. Anyone who would say such a thing probably deserved to lose an election. Still, calling people names seems to have become central to conservative talk.

President Donald Trump has mastered childish name-calling. Think about the phrases that he has added to our political lexicon: “Lyin’, lyin’ Ted,” “Little Marco,” and “Crooked Hillary.” “Rocket Man” is in a class of its own. Trump did not, of course, invent this hideous discourse; he just heard what conservatives were saying every day and outdid them. Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh’s show of November 21 referred to “modern-day feminazis and their wuss male supporters.” Two radio hosts referred to a Sikh politician as “turban man.” (They were suspended.)


Now, name-calling is political talk’s lowest form. The ideal of republican government is for us to debate about issues and character. Name-calling does not advance that agenda. How do you debate someone who only wants to call you names?

Why is this happening? I can only speculate. Here are some academic-type hypotheses:

1. Maybe people call each other names because they don’t know how to make rational arguments. This is an important conclusion of research conducted by my friend and colleague Andrew Rancer and his co-authors. They define an “argumentativeness trait” as a personal inclination to give reasons and evidence for your points, whereas a “verbal aggressiveness” trait is an inclination to engage in personal attacks instead of making arguments. They concluded that people become verbally aggressive because they lack debating skill. People who receive simple instruction to learn how to prove a point use less verbal aggression. All things being equal, training people in argumentation, debate, philosophy, and related humanities fields might help them to argue more constructively.

2. Here’s a more speculative answer. Conservatives don’t need to make policy arguments. That’s because people don’t always know where their traditions come from. Liberals always want to plan new things and examine cause and effect, as the conservative theorist Richard Weaver pointed out in his wonderful book The Ethics of Rhetoric. In contrast, conservatives argue from definitions, broad principles, or the simple weight of tradition. We often forget where our traditions come from, which means that we can’t always explain them. Scientists Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson explain this in Culture and the Evolutionary Process. Unfortunately, when they are unable to articulate their traditions, traditionalists might respond to disagreement, not by talking about long-forgotten lessons, but instead by calling people names.

Tradition can be good. Generations pass something of what is learned to the next generation. That is called tradition. We don’t have to figure things out from scratch; we can learn from people who came before us. Liberals often overestimate how skillfully they can solve problems or create new social ideas. Oddly, conservatives don’t always appreciate how important tradition is, which is why they sometimes call people names.

So:

3. Calling people names is a low form of talk. Insecure people get a burst of sick joy when they run someone else down, but they don’t advance their argument and will never convince neutral observers.

4. If you are a conservative, you don’t need to resort to name-calling. Just say that you believe such-and-such because it is a tradition. To prove your argument, show that it is a real tradition that has served us well for many years. Explain that to change something that works is risky. Don’t try to beat the liberals at point-by-point analysis; that’s their game, not yours.

5. Yes, many traditions are long-forgotten, and traditionalists do not always know the reasons that we do things the old ways. That’s why we call it “tradition.” That’s OK. What traditionalists can do is to study history.


P.S.: Years ago, I published an article about how the argument from tradition can be valuable. To read it, go to scholar.google.com and use Harpine + tradition as your search words.

P.P.S.: It’s good for Americans to learn their traditions. Some of the most satisfying years of my youth were spent reading hundreds – no, thousands – of pages of the writings of our nation’s founders. If you want to know our traditions, there is no substitute for going to the source. Instead of calling people names, our noble conservative friends might click on these links:


P.P.S.: Finally, readers who want to read Trump’s despicable “Rocket Man” speech can find it here. And here is the debate transcript of one of the many times he called Senator Ted Cruz “Lyin’ Ted.”

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