Harping
It has hard, if not impossible, to be pan-knowledgeable about one subject, let alone all of the subjects that make up current events or the world of political and civics issues.
Frequently, people latch onto one point, learn something about it and then harp on that. They may understand all of the nuances of this one subject and may even understand how this one subject relates to other concerns. More often, people work out something that they personally understand and can talk about and then consider that they have a well developed political point of view.
Most successful propaganda consist of data that is easily assimilatable form, can be remembered and can easily be repeated to others. To someone who has difficulty making their own analysis, this drive-thru, fast-food-like delivery of minimal political knowledge is all they need to sound smart.
Harping is easy to recognize. The Harper drones on and on about one subject, usually repeating popular talking points, and can not or will not answer questions about other subjects. They can’t debate a subject, but resort to tactics like personal attacks, throwing out red herrings and revising history.
Most political parties don’t do a good job of educating their followers. Platform planks are usually singled out, featured and spun to address current political events in a way that benefits that party. Citizens are fed propaganda in the form of talking points or slogans unsupported by understanding. Under this way of operating, people don’t become informed voters. They become loud harpers.
What’s missing these days is discourse. In Colonial days, debate was ubiquitous. Today, Ideologues don’t want their critics to be able to express opposing opinions because Ideologues can’t argue their points of view without exposing their real objectives.
True discourse is letting all sides express, without suppression, their points of view. It should be resurrected.
