I've been having this problem a lot lately - I find myself defending various right-wing groups and positions from leftist attacks and end up tarred with the same brush even though I'm far from agreeing with every aspect of the right-wing positions. At the same time there's a strong psychological push toward political polarisation where I find myself agreeing more strongly with the right-wingers than I would have if I hadn't been arguing about it.
So far my solution has been to try to reduce my exposure to political arguments, since they don't do me much good anyway. But if you're on the internet a lot that's easier said than done.
I was called "left-wing" by some right-wing people, called "right-wing" by some left-wing people, and when a random Jehovah Wittness called me "an intolerant Catholic", I stopped caring anymore about how other people call me, because it simply doesn't make sense.
When someone calls you X, they usually mean that you are not as anti-X as them.
Signalling group loyalty, affective death spirals, et cetera. If you don't believe that your enemies eat little babies, you are probably one of them; QED. You can't have a rational debate wi...
Previous Open Thread: http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/k94/open_thread_may_19_25_2014/
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