The Five Varieties of Bad Political Thinking

Today's first "deep thought" post. Are YOU prone to falling into any of these thought modes?  Most of us are probably attracted to one or another of these currently-popular approaches to politics.  The trick is to recognize this fact and to open our minds to other ways of thinking.

One of the "varieties of bad political thought"  is Moral Equivalence.

Especially fashionable on the left, this mode of political thought assumes that it is the height of dialectical brilliance to subvert a democratic government’s logic by “comparing” it to that of its totalitarian enemy.

Another is Triumphal Manicheanism, typified (in the author' view) by some fans of Glenn Beck.   Beck's self-described "rodeo clown" schtick is sometimes disconcerting to me, but at least he recognizes that he is being dramatic.   Not being much of a TV watcher, I usually only see him in video clips presented by those who agree with some point he is making, or by someone making fun of him.  Sometimes Beck makes very well-documented, stunningly sensible observations which no one else seems to make.  But these come as a package with  (to me), some embarrassingly weird dramatic efforts.

I hope that most people see much of his presentation style as "acting".   I am never sure whether to expect something brilliant or something jarringly silly, like Beck staring strangely into the camera.  Maybe this unpredictability is one reason people watch or listen to him.  Or maybe some of the more clownish  aspects of his presentation are intended to drive the sophisticated Left wild with contempt, leading Beck's admirers to defend him in turn.   Mark Levin (who himself probably seems more reasonable in print than on the radio) and other conservatives are worried about Beck's influence. And there's this, too:

(the triumphal Manichean) traffics in either/or dichotomies of political thought, believing that everything his own government or society does is right and all those who criticize it—even from within—are radical communists. This may be because the triumphal Manichean once was one himself. Indeed, the trajectory from left to right is typically charted by those with every intention of changing the substance but not the style of their ideology. . .

However, some in the left-leaning mainstream media are in full-blown, seemingly delusional paranoia about Beck, particularly given their lack of similar concern over the ACTUAL VIOLENCE coming from the political left RIGHT NOW. This seems to fall into another of the author's categories of current "bad political thinking":   Hysterical Conspiracism.

Andrew Sullivan is analyzed by the author as having moved from "Triumphal Manicheanism" to "Hysterical Conspiracism".   His creepy, "not-reality-based" obsession with Sarah Palin's children, the recent disclosure that he had been using "ghost bloggers" and the decline in the rationality  of his work makes me wonder why he is kept on board at The Atlantic. He's pretty whacky concerning THE JEWS, too.

The other two current trends in "bad political thinking" identified by the author are Tragic Manicheanism (very popular with the academic crowd) and Charismatic Authoritarianism (currently popular in many countries). The author's examples are good ones.