Changes

:::::This matter is made even more touchy by the fact that leftists and other political opponents of conservatives rejoice to see infighting amongst conservatives about who are the true and who are the false conservatives. They like to see conservative resources expended uselessly on divisive conflicts that breed bitterness and eventual attrition within the ranks. So in trying to debate whether a particular conservative is a hypocrite, we will have to simultaneously deal with people's fears that we're playing right into the leftists' hands by even engaging in that discussion. Before we get started, I think we need to be aware of all the barriers to productive conversation and decide whether we can or should commit ourselves to overcoming them, or else it's better just to not even get underway on this effort.

:::::This matter is made even more touchy by the fact that leftists and other political opponents of conservatives rejoice to see infighting amongst conservatives about who are the true and who are the false conservatives. They like to see conservative resources expended uselessly on divisive conflicts that breed bitterness and eventual attrition within the ranks. So in trying to debate whether a particular conservative is a hypocrite, we will have to simultaneously deal with people's fears that we're playing right into the leftists' hands by even engaging in that discussion. Before we get started, I think we need to be aware of all the barriers to productive conversation and decide whether we can or should commit ourselves to overcoming them, or else it's better just to not even get underway on this effort.

:::::Incidentally, the particular manifestation of conservative infighting that anti-conservatives love above all others is when conservatives falsely accuse one another of not being true conservatives and purge the innocent from their ranks. This damages the movement by (1) directly diminishing its manpower through the loss of the purged members, (2) causing more infighting that results in more attrition (whether by (a) resignation of members who are disgusted by either (I) the way the fighting is going or (II) the fact that so much attention is devoted to fighting in general; or by (b) further purges, when one faction or another gets the upper hand over the other and expels its adversaries), and (4) detracting from the movement's reputation for fairness, reasonableness and effectiveness, which hinders recruitment. [[User:Dhdidnac|Dhdidnac]] 09:37, 7 January 2014 (EST)

:::::Incidentally, the particular manifestation of conservative infighting that anti-conservatives love above all others is when conservatives falsely accuse one another of not being true conservatives and purge the innocent from their ranks. This damages the movement by (1) directly diminishing its manpower through the loss of the purged members, (2) causing more infighting that results in more attrition (whether by (a) resignation of members who are disgusted by either (I) the way the fighting is going or (II) the fact that so much attention is devoted to fighting in general; or by (b) further purges, when one faction or another gets the upper hand over the other and expels its adversaries), and (4) detracting from the movement's reputation for fairness, reasonableness and effectiveness, which hinders recruitment.

 

:::::One is reminded of [[2 Samuel]] 11-12. [[David]] and [[Uriah]] were supposed to be on the same side, but David turned on him without good cause. In 2 Samuel 12:14, [[Nathan]] points out, "by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme". The enemies of conservatism watch what we do for any sign of illogic or factual inaccuracy, yearning to chortle over any error we might make. Worrying about it excessively can in fact induce more errors, so we can and should, of course, let the dogs bark and pay no heed to their yelping, knowing that ultimately, "with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." ([[1 Peter]] 2:15) I just point it out because the possibility often comes up in these debates. Creating an article like [[pseudoconservative hypocrisy]] is like [http://imgur.com/wGUTG code refactoring]; one wants to think through the likely consequences before venturing into that bathtub. [[User:Dhdidnac|Dhdidnac]] 09:37, 7 January 2014 (EST)

== Moving / renaming pages ==

== Moving / renaming pages ==