/midpol/ - Politically (Mis)Informed

In my opinion there is no more harmful idea in political discourse than "the pills." It is most commonly used by the right, but all political groups have made use of a similar idea at some point in their history.

Consider the origins of the term. In the film 'The Matrix,' the protagonist Neo is offered a red pill that represents seeing the Matrix as a simulation and a blue pill that will allow him to go back to his ordinary life. The red pill is a "painful truth" and the blue pill is "blissful ignorance."

The problem when applying this metaphor to political issues is that it allows total dismissal of ones opponents. The belief that ones position represents a "painful truth" that must be accepted allows anyone who objects to be dismissed as too weak or cowardly to see an obvious fact.

However, a "fact" is nothing more than empirical data that can be verified. While it it is true that some facts are willfully ignored by certain parts of the population, an opinion or a position is not a fact.

It is a fact that, on average, a greater percentage of blacks than whites have been convicted of crimes in the United States in its recorded history.

It is an opinion that this difference is caused by institutionalized racism which causes blacks to be targeted more often by law enforcement.

It is also an opinion that blacks are an inferior race which is inherently predisposed to antisocial criminal behavior.

Both of these opinions can be supplemented with facts to make them more valid. Both require this support before acting on them can be justified. The "reality" is that there are no easy answers that make either opinion an unassailable fact. If that is "reality," who really took the blue pill?