Straight lines

On the podcast last week I described what I saw as a tendency in right-wing thought regarding the validity of talking about the collective characteristics of certain groups of people. I think it can be generalised somewhat: societal downplaying or devaluing of certain forms of thought that are perhaps more intuitive, colloquial or based in tradition—that don’t move in the straight lines of reason—causes frustration in conservatives who, whether for reasons of age or whatever else, tend to me more inclined to think that way. "I should be able to say or think this -> someone has challenged me on that -> I can’t quite reason it out -> anger" would be a thumbnail sketch of the process. Ways that people have "always thought" or "always done things", things that seem like simple common sense (to them) are suddenly no longer good enough or accepted. I'm not defending the thought patterns themselves, but (not to sound like some rationalist dingus) where emotion or feeling comes into conflict with reason, a) reason often loses and b) either way the dissonance is quite frustrating to the person experiencing it, and I can see why this would be frustrating in the moment. You could also argue, though, that this isn't dissonance as much as it is the boggling inherent someone not used to being questioned being questioned. In this imaginary scenario. I'm still very tired.