Watching the unraveling of discourse both in our body politic and its associated talking heads made me start thinking of how to approach any analysis. I start off with a few quotes
“Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.”
― Thomas Jefferson
“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”
― George Washington
“If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.”
― Malcolm X
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everyone will respect you.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
― Flannery O'Connor
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell
“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
“The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
To my mind the final quote stands out in our political and cultural miasma on both sides of the pond.
Miasma: unwholesome exhalations arising from putrescent matter
Reading defenses of behavior by one side over the other because the other side does the same, if not worse, tends not to hold water. Sometimes it is better not resort to excuses but just to hold your hand up and say "sorry", then act to change the shortcomings.
“Being safe doesn't mean you won't be sorry.”
― Katerina Stoykova Klemer
When the defense that a group is only making matters worse by speaking out because in so doing, you are aiding the other side; then:
“When truth is replaced by silence,the silence is a lie.”
― Yevgeny Yevtushenko
When the counter argument starts off with a dogmatic proclamation:
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.
Anais Nin
Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.
Mohandas Gandhi
When your argument is contrary to the data [e.g. climate change denial] try to remember
“Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.”
– Charles Babbage
Why are honesty, integrity, truth, and [constructive] criticism important?
“Either way, change will come. It could be bloody, or it could be beautiful. It depends on us.”
― Arundhati Roy