Maybe not the right forum, but I can’t think of a better one.
I’ve noticed something in common with almost every disagreement/discussion I’ve had lately. The debate is pretty much pointless, as I don’t even agree with the basic premise of the debate. The premise the basic fact that everyone is supposed to accept and take for granted, that which is assumed to be true. That’s supposed to be the common ground, foundation, we share that both parties in the debate can build their argument on.
So I don’t agree with the foundation, but it’s really deeper than seeing a crack in a foundation. I don’t think the ground is stable enough to consider a foundation, or that it’s even the right climate to build a house. Really, that a house needs to be built anywhere. I’m so far back on issues and questions before the foundation is established that there seems to be little point of even debating the foundation…the premise.
Take taxes for example. In the US political world right now, income taxes are a hot topic. The question seems to be what is the fair percentage of income tax collected for differing incomes. The premise being that income is tax is right and fair to begin with, which I do not accept. I don’t see why tax is tied to income in any way since a citizen’s use of government resources is not tied to their income (it is really, just inverted). I question why government should be providing the services it provides, creating a need for income tax. Beyond that, I question whether income tax is really even that important in terms of identifying the actual issues in the US right now. In that regard I don’t care about income taxes if other issues, issues not even on the radar are not discussed.
I see the same at work. There are topics that are up for discussion on how to design a new process in such, but I do not accept the basic assumptions of the process, nor get anyone to consider digging deeper to the root of real issues. We aren’t fixing anything, we are just rearranging chairs.
The same goes with gender relations. The issues in debate today are based on premises that I don’t accept. The premise is never up for debate, so there is no point.
In fact in terms of politics and gender relations, it almost appears that the debate strategy is in tricking the opponent into accepting the premise by default. Take equal pay. They debate is staged to answer the question of how to get women to be paid more. The premise being that they don’t currently get paid equally and they deserve to be so. But you aren’t supposed to question the premise because we are supposed to already be passed that and accepted for truth. No one will consider whether the foundation is solid or not. So I say there is no point in participating in the debate because the results are irrelevant and pointless to me. But that’s just fine with them….because the really don’t care either. All they really wanted was acceptance of the premise without question.
This is happening with Trump. His attackers are throwing out that what they declare as proper moral behavior is more important than any policy. We are to only debate Trump’s tweets and whether or not they are racist or sexist and never consider whether we accept on whether it matters to begin with. I don’t see it as material, so I see no point in considering the debate.
I cannot decide on whether it makes sense to continual question the premises, the foundations that we are built upon, or if it is better to simply reject, to not participate and go build a house on the foundations that actually makes sense. It seems the latter is the sane approach.
