The Curse of Binaries

Cognitive Capture via Black and White Thinking

Photo by Shahram Anhari on Unsplash

You’re only supposed to care about making money on Substack.

You’re only supposed to write for free and not care about money on Substack because it’s all about the community and putting yourself out there.

You’re Republican. (Evil.)

You’re Democrat. (Lost.)

You’re Progressive. (Soldiers of enlightened truth if you’re from Column A; idiotic, fascistic antisemitic crazies if in Column B.)

You’re either good or bad, right or wrong, happy or sad, on the right side of history or on the wrong side, following the correct tribe or the opposite, etc.

Anyone can see—if you turn your brain back to the “on” position—that this manner of thinking (if “thinking” is really the proper word here) is diabolical, infantile, ineffective, stupid, incurious, unserious, unhelpful and broken.

The simple truth is this: To be human is to be complex. This extends from your thoughts to your ideas to your [sometimes taboo] desires to your needs to your expectations to your political leanings and everything between and under and beyond.

We are in a very dumb cultural moment in America. The notion of having to “pick a side” is not only foolish and toxic, it’s also incredibly damaging. The lying on both political sides has been shocking and infuriating. On one hand we have the malignant narcissism and cheap gaudiness of Donald Trump along with all the spineless pansies on the Republican side who have blindly followed his every word in order to attempt to stay in power and hold onto his stubborn base. On the other hand we have an angry, aggressive, violent, antisemitic, dishonest, hypocritical Progressive wing of the Democratic party which is causing Black, Asian and Hispanic voters to peel off to the Republican party in small but not insignificant droves.

Both sides believe the other is “evil” and “fascistic.” The fact is that we’re in a negative feedback-loop: It takes two to tango, people. Republicans are banning books legally in libraries, etc. Clearly, that is beyond antidemocratic, illiberal and stupid. Hard stop. And yes: You can go back to the 80s and 90s when Republicans were censoring everything in sight. (Also stupid and wrong.) And yet, to anyone with open eyes and any sense of honesty, it’s also clear that this current iteration of censorship most certainly started (around 2013) on the Left, not the Right.