Guest post: The inability to tolerate the nuances

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August 25, 2026

Originally a comment by iknklast on Just ask women.

It seems possible to me that Linehan (and I don’t know much about him, except what I’ve read here) may be falling victim to the same problem so many people have: the idea that all goodness must be manifest in those you agree with (even on one issue) and all badness must be manifest in those you disagree with (even on one issue). The inability to tolerate the nuances of political and social issues, where someone you disagree with vehemently on many issues may actually have one or more issues where you agree with them, seems to be the order of the day anymore.

I felt that once, when I found myself agreeing with Dubya on something important. Then I discovered I agreed with Jonah Goldberg on something. It disturbed me, until I realized that there are none of us who are perfect, and no one I am in perfect alignment with on all issues (and that includes everyone here, and I hope you can understand that those places where I disagree do not make you nazis in my mind). I find I don’t even agree with myself all the time; some of my views have changed over time, and I wince at things I have thought, or written, or said, in the past.

There is a great deal of discussion on whether we should align with our enemies on any issue where we agree, even though we disagree on almost everything else. I think we should; we should keep our opinions nuanced, and able to disagree with those people on everything else, and be willing to be outspoken about that. There are many places where I agree with the left, and several places where I think they are absolutely bonkers (trans, for instance, and many of their more extreme environmental views). That doesn’t prevent me from considering myself leftist, progressive, but not ‘woke’, at least not in so far as it requires adopting the entire package, including the nutty beliefs.

As for aligning with the right on the trans issues, I think we should be in uneasy alliance with them, accepting that they are our only allies right now on this issue, but recognizing that they have vastly different, and dangerous, reasons for their anti-trans views, and that they are not really being pro-woman. I don’t believe you always get up with fleas if you lie down with dogs, but I do think you need to be assured you have adequate flea medicine handy, because fleas do tend to jump around.

It is a shame that the ability to work across the aisles on areas of agreement, while maintaining disagreement with all other issues, has given way to purity politics. I retain the right to disagree with anyone about anything, even while agreeing strongly with them about others. This ‘with us or against us’ and ‘purity or death’ mindset is destroying us.

Comments

6 responses to “Guest post: The inability to tolerate the nuances”

Mike Haubrich

Aug 25, 2026 4:45 PM

but recognizing that they have vastly different, and dangerous, reasons for their anti-trans views, and that they are not really being pro-woman.

Absolutely. So, now when a conservative asks me, as a Democrat, “What is a woman?” I answer “The ones who die because abortion laws prevent them from getting the proper medical care.”
iknklast

Aug 25, 2026 8:41 PM

Good answer! I like it. I think I’ll use it in the future. After all, ‘adult human female’ is something the conservatives and I can agree on; might as well give them an answer that might (but won’t) make them think.
Mostly Cloudy

Aug 26, 2026 4:20 AM

Iknklast:

There are many places where I agree with the left, and several places where I think they are absolutely bonkers (trans, for instance, and many of their more extreme environmental views). That doesn’t prevent me from considering myself leftist, progressive, but not ‘woke’, at least not in so far as it requires adopting the entire package, including the nutty beliefs.

It does seem that “the left” is more of a homogeneous group in the United States that it is in Europe. I can think of at least several prominent left-wing activists in Britain with overt gender-critical views (Joanna Cherry, Jane Clare Jones, Elaine Graham-Leigh, Lucy Masoud, Rosanne Rabinowitz) ; it would be difficult to name any US left-wing activists with similarly open GC views.

Even US publications like “Jacobin” and “Damage Magazine”, which occasionally challenge the line on “nutty beliefs” like the crazy “Abolish the Family” movement, never depart from the Erin Reed position on transgender ideology.
iknklast

Aug 26, 2026 4:36 AM

Mostly Cloudy, it seems to me like the major differences in the left are economic. The ‘moderates’ basically want a sort of kinder, gentler capitalism (but not too gentle – it is one of our most left legislators here in Nebraska who spent more than a year trying to water down the sick leave pay that the voters voted for – she is part of a large family grocery store chain, and did her best to insist that it should not apply to…get ready…grocery stores. When they did apply it to grocery stores, the family started charging for bags).

The moderate claim a neoliberal line on that, while the ‘radicals’ (which term is used to skewer anyone on the left you disagree with about anything) are said to all want socialism. Many of us don’t fit in either camp, wanting either a mixed economy, or something somewhat different altogether, but you wouldn’t know we exist from the media. We’re not interesting; they love ‘moderates’ and ‘radicals’ shouting at each other, and will do everything possible to amplify their voices, thereby assisting the left in its seemingly desperate attempts to destroy the Democratic party from within.
Athel Cornish-Bowden

Aug 26, 2026 9:37 AM

We are working our way towards a presidential election in France — still several months off, but they talk about it all the time on television. There is at least a possibility (small, I hope) that the second round will be between the far left (Melenchon) and the far right (Le Pen), after the moderate candidates have been eliminated in the first round. If anyone had asked me five years ago if I could ever vote for Le Pen I would have said it was impossible, but if the only alternative is Melenchon I may have no option.

Occasionally (very very occasionally) I find myself agreeing with something Trump has said. I think we need to recognize that no one will agree with us 100% about everything. I had that experience here at Butterflies and Wheels a year or two ago when I said something positive about Peter Duesberg. My recollection is that everyone was appalled.
guest

Aug 26, 2026 11:40 AM

‘it would be difficult to name any US left-wing activists with similarly open GC views’ – I can think of a few – Kara Dansky, Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith.