The 80/20 Rule

Making fun of leftists who espouse crazy ideas (like freeing Mumia Abu Jamal) is, in a way, a kind of "straw man" argument that can lump all those who espouse "left-of-center" ideas into a group that is thereby easily dismissed. I wish to be free from that. The fact is that most people share the same societal goals and are entirely reasonable. We tend to hear only about the 20% who are shrieking and rending their garments - at either end of the spectrum. It becomes easy to pigeon hole people as "Neo-cons" or "leftists". This is not the way to engender a meaningful dialog. This is not to say that we shouldn't point out the ridiculousness of some positions. Rather we should seek to discover what ends are sought before judging positions. That is what I want to do.