“Deeply embedded in conservative and liberal politics are different models of the family. Conservatism, as we shall see, is based on a Strict Father model, while liberalism is centered around a Nurturant Parent model. These two models of the family give rise to different moral systems and different discourse forms, that is, different choices of words and different modes of reasoning." -- Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, 1996
In a democracy, the private depends on the public.
Businesses depend on public resources: roads, bridges, highways, sewers, a water supply, airports and air traffic control, a patent office, public education for your employees, public health, the electric grid, the satellite communications, the internet, and more.
Individuals depend on clean air, water, safe food, public safety, access to education and health care, housing, employment ... Without such public resources, you are not free.
What is the middle ground between the truth and a lie? What is the middle ground between democracy and dictatorship?
An examination of the flawed premise behind the so-called "moderate" frame in politics, and how a warped notion of journalistic "neutrality" can aid and abet anti-democratic forces.
It imposes on the freedom to think and therefore to act free of fear, threats, and distrust. It imposes on one’s ability to think and act like a fully free citizen for a long time. Hate speech can also change the brains of those with mild prejudice, moving it towards hate and threatening action. When hate is physically in your brain, then you think hate and feel hate, you are moved to act to carry out what you physically, in your neural system, think and feel.
All thought is carried out by neural circuitry — it does not float in air. Language neurally activates thought. Language can thus change brains, both for the better and the worse.
Hate speech changes the brains of those hated for the worse. It creates toxic stress, fear and distrust — all physical, all in one’s neural circuitry active every day.
This internal harm can be even more severe than an attack with a fist.