Anyone watching the impeachment hearings has to notice that the Republicans shout. A lot. So do Fox News pundits. So did Kavanaugh. Had Christine Ford shouted, she would have been dismissed as irrational. Hillary Clinton got through extraordinary grilling without shouting; Obama never shouted. Shouting is the exclusive right of the Right.
How the GOP Loyalist media handles shouting is probably the single best example of how indefensibly irrational their rhetoric is. It isn’t rational; it’s just factional. Exactly the same behavior is condemned if out-group members engage in it, but admired if it’s GOP Loyalists.
It’s because the GOP Loyalist media is a media of fear, a media that promotes fear of immigrants, of Muslims, of Democrats. It’s all fear-mongering all the time. GOP Loyalists are so terrified that they can’t even be brave enough to take seriously any criticisms of their positions. People who sincerely believe that they’re right aren’t afraid of seeking out the best arguments saying we’re wrong. We believe that either we can take those arguments seriously and see they’re wrong, or modify our positions.
People who are too afraid to take seriously other arguments are secretly aware that their beliefs are too fragile to withstand reasonable interrogation.
People too afraid to listen to other points of view think they aren’t afraid since they’re standing strong and fierce and they’re shouting a lot. They’re like people standing in a dark bedroom with a shotgun pointed at the underside of the bed shouting about the hobgoblins they believe are under there. That’s what a coward does. A brave person would get a flashlight and look.
A coward blusters, shouts, and threatens violence against hobgoblins, and against anyone who gets a flashlight.
If the Republicans had good arguments against impeachment, they’d make them. They wouldn’t need to shout.
Nothing new here, you nailed it perfectly…We can’t forget the recent example of Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelling “you lie” during President Obama’s address to Congress. Historically, this goes back a ways to at least ancient Sparta, where they decided elections not by voting, but by shouting. Aristotle described this as “excessively childish,” but this ancient process did not stop with the Greeks. In the lead up to the Civil War, many of the passionate debates in Congress descended into shouting. Andrew Johnson faced similar difficulty during Reconstruction when during his Swing-Around-The-Circle speech tour he, President of the United States mind you, was forced to engage in shouting matches with many hecklers. Those shouters actually affected the sitting President’s popularity which spiraled down until his eventual impeachment.
Excellent points. Recently I was shouted at regarding rights of LGBT folks by a conservative. The shouted words were both illogical and off topic. Somehow I find this article reassuring.
Your reasoning is just as true applied to the behaviour of Hindu communalists in India. Or fundamentalists everywhere across the political spectrum.
I’m still convinced that people who spiral toward conservativism are possessed of higher-than-average amounts of Neanderthal DNA. They fear everything that isn’t familiar, and conversely hate everything they fear. They deal with things by shouting and using violence. They are shamelessly selfish and boggled why others aren’t as selfish as they are, thinking that people who DON’T take advantage of other people are somehow weak or foolish. To them, compassion and kindness are flaws that one should be ashamed of, and acceptance of others who aren’t part of their own tribe is seen as a vulnerability.
I think you’re making an ad hominem argument. Also about the reference to Neanderthals, I assume you’re speaking figuratively. There’s some evidence that Neanderthals have been erroneously portrayed as brutish, violent, and slow; that they were gentle folk who loved their children.
Shouting is an intimidation tactic used to silence people who oppose them, same as terrorism. If you can’t win logically and have no evidence, then you shout and attack the character.
It was Shakespeare that wrote”Me thinks he doth protest too much.” Science tells also. A quick look at Dunning–Kruger, and Daniel Kahnaman’s type 1 thinkers gives insight into the new Rage Politicians.