Another Batya fan here, especially when she is so open about finding aspects of both Trump and Haley appealing. Donnie and Nikki are near polar opposites in both style and ideological substance, yet there is something in each of them that I think most of us can find appealing.
There was one part of this conversation where I found myself r…
Another Batya fan here, especially when she is so open about finding aspects of both Trump and Haley appealing. Donnie and Nikki are near polar opposites in both style and ideological substance, yet there is something in each of them that I think most of us can find appealing.
There was one part of this conversation where I found myself really questioning Batya, though. She suggested that one should change their mind about an issue if they learned that a sizable majority of the population disagreed. Bari pushed back a bit on this idea, although not quite as hard and directly as I would have liked. The majority is not always right, and if one sincerely believes an argument that places most people on the opposite side, that in and of itself is not cause to change one's mind. Indeed, a herd mentality is a big problem in our cancel-culture era of politics, with various heterodox thinkers cast into the wilderness. As Bari did note, when one has a minority position, it is important to accept the democratic will of the people--at least in the short run, while trying to win the argument another day. Likewise, if one finds themself believing an unpopular position, a truly critical thinker would humbly revisit the question, open to the idea that maybe the majority does know better. I think Batya would agree with all this, but it was remarkable how much her reactions to the debate were based on her conversations with "working class" people around the country, implicitly believing that whatever the majority of those folks believe must be correct and righteous. This strikes me as an overly conciliatory attitude towards populism. Sometimes it really is better to listen to the few rather than the many.
Another Batya fan here, especially when she is so open about finding aspects of both Trump and Haley appealing. Donnie and Nikki are near polar opposites in both style and ideological substance, yet there is something in each of them that I think most of us can find appealing.
There was one part of this conversation where I found myself really questioning Batya, though. She suggested that one should change their mind about an issue if they learned that a sizable majority of the population disagreed. Bari pushed back a bit on this idea, although not quite as hard and directly as I would have liked. The majority is not always right, and if one sincerely believes an argument that places most people on the opposite side, that in and of itself is not cause to change one's mind. Indeed, a herd mentality is a big problem in our cancel-culture era of politics, with various heterodox thinkers cast into the wilderness. As Bari did note, when one has a minority position, it is important to accept the democratic will of the people--at least in the short run, while trying to win the argument another day. Likewise, if one finds themself believing an unpopular position, a truly critical thinker would humbly revisit the question, open to the idea that maybe the majority does know better. I think Batya would agree with all this, but it was remarkable how much her reactions to the debate were based on her conversations with "working class" people around the country, implicitly believing that whatever the majority of those folks believe must be correct and righteous. This strikes me as an overly conciliatory attitude towards populism. Sometimes it really is better to listen to the few rather than the many.