{"id":451,"date":"2004-07-09T14:33:46","date_gmt":"2004-07-09T18:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/benadida\/2004\/07\/09\/surrounded-by-extremists-framing-the"},"modified":"2004-07-09T14:33:46","modified_gmt":"2004-07-09T18:33:46","slug":"surrounded-by-extremists-framing-the-argument-to-appear-reasonable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/2004\/07\/09\/surrounded-by-extremists-framing-the-argument-to-appear-reasonable\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrounded by Extremists: Framing the Argument to Appear Reasonable"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

A classic rhetorical method is to “expose” extremists on either side of your position. Suddenly, you appear quite reasonable. Everyone does it. Though I’m mostly aping other great thinkers<\/a> before me, I’m guilty of this technique in the context of the copyright debate. Look at the MPAA, they want to make you pay an extra dollar every time you press the rewind button on your DVD player! And look at those crazy communists who want all information to be free! I’m over here in the middle. I’m reasonable. I seek a compromise. Authors get financial rewards for their work, and consumers maintain the freedom to be creative.<\/p>\n

I happen to truly believe this range. I believe my position is fairly moderate. But you may not. You may not agree with the range I’ve outlined, with the extremists I’ve exposed, and with the comfy “middleground” spot I’ve saved for myself.<\/p>\n

In general, it’s good to be cautious with these types of arguments. Evaluate the supposed extremists, and decide if you really think the context has been set correctly. I’m thinking of Andrew Sullivan’s Time Magazine article<\/a>, which claims that Fahrenheit 9\/11<\/a> and The Passion of the Christ<\/a> are “two sides of the same coin.” Conveniently, Andrew Sullivan hates both.<\/p>\n

Let’s think about this one. On the one hand, you have Gibson, a man who refuses the Pope’s teachings as being, effectively, too liberal an interpretation of the Bible. Gibson depicts a version of history that has been discounted by most historians and by the Church. Gibson declares he is simply depicting the truth.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, you have Moore, a man who could use a few lessons in tact, but who supports the War in Afghanistan and, in fact, wishes more military resources were sent there instead of Iraq. He attacks Democrats and Republicans alike for failing to stand up for minority votes in Florida 2000, for voting for the Patriot Act, and the War in Iraq. He hires highly reputable fact checkers to comb through his movie. He freely admits that his movie is “an editorial,” not an authoritative account of the facts. This is hardly the foaming-at-the-mouth leftist extremist that Sullivan & co. are describing.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m not saying Moore is perfect. I just saw his movie, and I have certain issues with it. I’m only making one point: the midpoint between Gibson and Moore is hardly the objective middle-ground Andrew Sullivan wants you to believe he embodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A classic rhetorical method is to “expose” extremists on either side of your position. Suddenly, you appear quite reasonable. Everyone does it. Though I’m mostly aping other great thinkers before me, I’m guilty of this technique in the context of the copyright debate. Look at the MPAA, they want to make you pay an extra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ben\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}