Adam Gurri: The Minefield of Prejudice: "One common appro...

Adam Gurri: The Minefield of Prejudice: "One common approach for discrediting an opponent���s ideas without engaging with them on their merits is to attempt to place them in an unsavory history.... Recent projects in this spirit include Thomas Leonard���s Illiberal Reformers, about the ideological allegiance of the early progressive economists to the principles of eugenics, and Nancy MacLean���s Democracy in Chains.... History of this kind is important, but to think that it is in itself discrediting is mistaken.... Investigating the histories of frameworks is important precisely because we aren���t in a position to align ourselves with something entirely pure. It is therefore imperative that we wrestle with the potential dangers in how our ideas and other alignments prejudice us, and 'genealogy' of Nietzsche���s sort can be an invaluable tool.... We are not the third-person omniscient narrators of our lives.... Scrutinizing the sources of our orientation is an important way we can learn more about our prejudices...

#noted