Topic: idiosyncratic egotism
I have received a comment, which I attempted to post but Tripod wouldn't let me (possibly becaue of bad language in it?), from a reader who read part of my last post, and from it drew the conclusion 1) that I support Sen. McCain and 2) that I support him because I'm a racist. Anyone who read the entirety of my last post will wonder how she could have drawn either conclusion. My post expressed discomfort with BOTH candidates, and never said ANYTHING that suggested racism. The truth is, at the 2000 Shawnee County, Kansas, Republican county caucus, I supported Alan Keyes, who is black. I no longer fully agree with Mr. Keyes' economics, but race is not an issue for me.
I suspect my commenter may have incorrectly identified me as a racist and a committed McCain supporter through the psychological operation, unknown to her, of some form of the Pigeon-Hole Fallacy, the Monolithic Fallacy, or the Opinion-Maker Fallacy. In essence, most people including my commenter, tend to take bundles of opinions received from an authorized source as being in some way logically and necessarily connected, so that anyone who holds one must necessarily hold all of the others, and anyone who rejects one must necessarily reject all of the others. So, when my commenter read that I disagree with Barack Obama, her candidate, and agree with Sen. McCain about abortion and a few other things, she drew the conclusion (without bothering to read the rest of my post) that I agree with the Republican platform about EVERYTHING. If she had read the rest of my post, she would have seen that isn't true. I disagree with Sen. McCain most sharply about economic recovery, health care, Iraq and Iran. But I also oppose abortion. I am not in substantial agreement with either party's, or either candidate's, full "package" of positions. And I am NOT a racist.
