An interesting piece in the New York Times dicusses the rising tide of unreason on the right wing of American -politics, abetted by the Fox faction and their ilk. But the problem is not rhetoric; it is the increase in ill-informed, radical hate talk which leads people to believe things that are not true and resort to violent solutions, or the contemplation of them. It would of course be a different matter if the threats were based on factual reports.

There is an entirely too large proportion of people in this country who only occasionally trip across logic by accident, and who prefer instead to act on the momentary stew of feelings they are surrounded by; this makes them vulnerable to rhetroical high-emotion low-reason persuasion by political, religious or social pundits who know how to push the buttons, if not how to parse the facts.

Contributing to this kind of unreason is not a good thing to do.


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