Political Alliances and Unbiased Thinking
Hello! I'm very excited to be starting this newsletter, excited, a little scared, but hopefully offering a slightly different perspective on current issues. I'm a politically independent, evangelical Christian who, leans toward the progressive side. I'm also an active 75 year old, semi- retired, mental health counselor, who doesn't want to spend the rest of her life in a rocking chair!
Regarding the politically independent position, I firmly believe that political labels can be very dangerous for maintaining clear, unbiased thinking. As soon as you give yourself a label, like Republican, Democrat, conservative, progressive or even independent centrist, you unconsciously start to take on the biases generally associated with those labels. If you're a Democrat you know that most Democrats are pro environment so anytime that's an issue, without really looking into the details, you probably unconsciously sympathize with the pro-environment view. If you see yourself as Republican, and gun control comes up, you automatically tend to sympathize with the progun view before even thinking about the details of the current issue. It's a lot harder to identify as independent, because you have to explore issues and get the details before making up your mind. Now my particular problem is that without viable independent parties to vote for, when I vote I have to choose a party and just that act makes me a little bit more biased toward that party. Then I have to consciously remind myself to think independently. My Christian faith also presents a challenge, because I have already chosen a belief which has a bottom line that God is the center of the spiritual world. I have thought through many of my beliefs, but am still in that process. I know the fact that I have been a Christian most of my life greatly affects my point of view, but I still try to think independently. Of course there isn't space here to go into every area of my faith struggles. The point of this post is that political labels can hamper unbiased thinking. However I believe with an understanding of the dangers of political alliances, unbiased thinking can be further improved.
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