The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides
our desire for prestige in a group. We
Arnold Kling • The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides
Decentering is not about empathy—intuiting how others might be feeling. Rather, it is about intuiting what others are thinking. It is about imagining what is going through another person’s mind. It is about getting inside someone else’s head.
Arnold Kling • The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides
Communicating using the preferred axis of the tribe is good for reassuring others of one’s loyalty to the tribe, for lifting a person’s status in the tribe by pleasing those who agree with him or her, and for whipping up hostility against other tribes. What political language is not good for is persuading people outside one’s tribe or improving rel
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when we communicate about issues, we tend to fall back on one of the three axes. By doing so, we engage in political tribalism. We signal to members of our tribe that we agree with them, and we enhance our status in the tribe. However, even though it appears that we are arguing against people from other tribes, those people pay no heed to what we s
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each of us can reason more constructively and deliberate more effectively across political tribes if we recognize that we tend to be overly attuned to our preferred language.
Arnold Kling • The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides
The three axes allow each tribe to assert moral superiority.
Arnold Kling • The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides
call this the three-axes model of political communication. A progressive will communicate along the oppressor-oppressed axis, framing issues in terms of the P dichotomy. A conservative will communicate along the civilization-barbarism axis, framing issues in terms of the C dichotomy. A libertarian will communicate along the liberty-coercion axis, f
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we also can improve our self-regard by rationalizing our behavior when we violate social norms.
Arnold Kling • The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides
As Adam Smith pointed out, we have a desire for high self-regard. In part, we want to be recognized by others as being admirable. Moreover, each of us has what Smith called an “impartial spectator,” or conscience, which makes us feel happier when we believe that we are acting in a way that others will regard highly.