Assumption
Assumptions (noun)
Something a right-wing person does when they are losing their point in a disccusion and want to pretend they are winning.
Disclaimer: The following is my experience trying to have adult conversations with people of opposite political views online, your milage may vary.
To be fair I am sure it happens from both sides and has more to do with the person and how they think than their political persuasions. But my experience, being on the left on most topics, is some right-wing person assuming I only listen to such and such a news source or voted for/like a given politician, or follow some extreme ideology, or some other crazy thing that is not supported at all by anything I have said.
It is like they have a persona for anyone that doesn’t agree with them. That persona is called “Liberal” or “Socialist”, or some other word they consider very bad. Then they think of what they consider the worst of such a person and assume that upon all who disagree with them. For sure there are times where we don’t have the full story and have to fill in the gaps but making unsubstantiated leaps is a bit much.
How about asking questions? I have tried that with very little success. A right-winger will make some statement that I find questionable. I don’t go assuming they only listen to Fox or other such things. I ask them “Could you please provide a link to an authoritative source that supports your perspective?”. I don’t think I have ever gotten a link back. I have asked such a quesstion more times than I can remember. The most I ever get back is “Google it”, or an assumption or an insult. Oh, and often nothing at all. They ignore my request and go on with their unsupported accusations.
I have, at times, made unsupported comments. Most often that is when the audience I am aiming my comment at understands the given perspective and the facts that support it. But on those rare times when some one challenges me about my comment I am always happy to provide links to authoritative sources. But I don’t know if that has ever helped because reality and fantasy so often get blurred in their mind.
Maybe referring to their unsupported opinion as fantasy is a bit harsh, but so often that is how it feels. They have this whole world of fictitious people and events that they seem to put as much, often much more, trust in than real world events. When their alternate reality is questioned they will occasionally refer to some web site as a“news” article that supports their claims. But almost with out exception the website cited is an opinion blog not a real news site/service.
They don’t seem to see the difference between NPR, the BBC, Fox News and some opinion blog that has the word “news” in it. Why do I call them opinion blogs, because that is more or less what they are. They are not reporting on the news, giving facts, they are giving their opinion of stories already known. Or in some cases giving opinions about beliefs.
I think belief is a major part of the problem. It is OK for a child to believe in Santa, it is fine for an adult to have religious beliefs, but when we chose to have beliefs contrary to facts that is when the fantasy begins. Like flat-earthers. The fact that the earth is round was proven centuries ago, but that fact has no meaning to such people.
But challenging such beliefs is futile. Anything that contradicts their view is seen as “fake news”. That seems to be their get-out-of-jail-free card for anything they don’t want to discuss. And so they retreat back into their fantasy. Trying to have an adult conversation with such people is maddening.
But I know there are a some right-wingers that you can have a reasonable conversation with. People that will fight facts with facts and admit when they are wrong. People that don’t assume or insult as they discuss a political topic. I know such people exist because I used to be such a person. Back in my college days I was very right-wing, but my best friends were very left-wing. Nearly all we ever talked about was politics. But our discussions were based on the facts and neither of us had a problem admitting when the facts show us wrong.
I am confident I wasn’t the only one. So I keep hoping some day I will run into such a person. I have come close a few times, but inevitably they retreated to “fake news” claims, mystery facts that they can’t support, or just ghosted me. But I will keep hoping.
