One of the key things I read in this story was a quote from this woman:
"I started to question everything. How many stories had I been sold that weren’t true? What if my perception of the other side is wrong? "
I found this to be a crucial passage, because this highlights a stark cleavage line between Conservatives and Leftists.
Conservatives live this every day. Granted, many of us have gone through this phase of genuine introspection, asking ourselves those very same questions, and once having explored the depths of what we believe coupled with what reality presents, came to our conclusions and don't revisit those questions in depth.
After all, if you have solved a problem once, and it comes up again, if the conditions haven't changed, you don't need to revisit the in-depth introspection required to understand how you will approach the problem.
That said, we are constantly presented with new questions, issues, and problems, or the conditions have changed, so we do that analysis.
We are forced (as Conservatives) to do that self-analysis, when you are bombarded every single day from every single angle by people and entities telling you that you are not just wrong, you are both evil and wrong. We Conservatives have a culture of introspection, to examine the fidelity, accuracy, and consistency of our views, simply because we often have a lifetime of being forced to do so. This has two outright benefits: It allows us to build a strong logical foundation to our beliefs that withstand inspection, onto which we can build other ideas that will benefit from that strong foundation, but it also allows us to be tolerant of those who may disagree with us in some aspect or another. There are certain fundamental beliefs built into that foundation that we guard jealously (such as the right to property, the right to self defense, freedom of speech, etc.) but we allow deviation on many views built on that foundation. In other words, we are generally not monolithic in our beliefs.
The Left not only does not have that culture of introspection, they actively discourage it.
The left is generally a monolithic, hive mentality culture that demands abject obeisance to its principles, and any deviation from those principles will brand you a heretic and an outsider. Leftism has much in common with many religions, and the mindset is pervasive at all levels in Leftism. Reading Whitaker Chambers' work in Witness, he describes how the Communist party leverages that groupthink mentality to not only weed out those whose "flawed" views differ from the officially accepted views, but to punish them. They know well that banishment of someone who has subscribed to that groupthink, to remove them from the support of others who think like them, is one of the most effective threats or punishments they have at their disposal, and they cynically use it to control people.
This woman eventually voted for one of the Democratic candidates, which shows her political views are not well thought out or formed. It is clear that she has put her toe into the waters of introspection and subsequent doubt, which is a massive step.
What she has not yet done is to make the intellectual leap from Leftism, which abhors that introspection and prohibits it. She does not yet understand that every candidate on the Left must (by definition) be antithetical to her newfound realization of the necessity of introspection, and that is introspection is a necessity for a fundamentally sound foundation on top of which ideas that are are both consistent with that foundation and flawed ideas that do not may coexist without damaging the solid foundation.
When she reaches that point of understanding that there is no crime in introspection, and that by decriminalizing introspection it will allow her to analyze her belief system and change her views to be more consistent with a strong foundation of principles, something that Leftism actually discourages and punishes.
As conservatives, we should help people who are willing to find their way. This was her first step, entering the environment at that rally where it became impossible for her to ignore or discount some of the Leftist precepts she had wholly swallowed. The next step is for her to begin building that foundation of solid principles that bring the things built on top of it into a truthful realignment.
Excellent comment.
While people on both sides of the field can avoid introspection I do think it is much more of a problem with people on the Left. I try not to argue with those people because they really get their back up. They do not want to consider opposing views. They seem very threatened by the idea.
All I ever try to do is to seem reasonable and to emphasize thinking and questioning. People need to come to their own conclusions, but if they become open to actually thinking about this stuff, it is a major step.
An excellent post. But I’ll make it simpler:
The Left hates you and wants you dead; govern yourself accordingly.
Well thought out and accurate comment. Thank you!