I finally realized today why politics and religion yield such uniquely useless discussions.

As a rule, any mention of religion on an online forum like nairaland or 4us degenerates into a religious argument. Why? Why does this happen with religion and not with relationships or toke makina gossips, or other topics people talk about on forums?


What's different about religion is that people don't feel they need to have any particular expertise to have opinions about it. All they need is strongly held beliefs, and anyone can have those. No thread about toke makinwa will grow as fast as one about religion, because people feel they have to be over some threshold of expertise to post comments about that. But on religion everyone's an expert.

Then it struck me: this is the problem with politics too. Politics, like religion, is a topic where there's no threshold of expertise for expressing an opinion. All you need is strong convictions.


Do religion and politics have something in common that explains this similarity? One possible explanation is that they deal with questions that have no definite answers, so there's no back pressure on people's opinions. Since no one can be proven wrong, every opinion is equally valid, and sensing this, everyone lets fly with theirs.

But this isn't true. There are certainly some political questions that have definite answers, like how much the recently conclude CONFAB cost. But the more precise political questions suffer the same fate as the vaguer ones.

I think what religion and politics have in common is that they become part of people's identity, and people can never have a fruitful argument about something that's part of their identity. By definition they're partisan.

Which topics engage people's identity depends on the people, not the topic. For example, a discussion about a battle that included citizens of one or more of the countries involved would probably degenerate into a political argument. But a discussion today about a battle that took place in the Bronze Age probably wouldn't. No one would know what side to be on. So it's not politics that's the source of the trouble, but identity. When people say a discussion has degenerated into a religious war, what they really mean is that it has started to be driven mostly by people's identities.

Because the point at which this happens depends on the people rather than the topic, it's a mistake to conclude that because a question tends to provoke religious wars, it must have no answer. For example, the question of the the merits of voting a particular political party often degenerates into a religious war, because so many Nigerians identify as APC or PDP.

This sometimes leads people to conclude the question must be unanswerable—that all political parties are equally good (or bad). Obviously that's false. And indeed, you can have a fruitful discussion about the relative merits of each political party, so long as you exclude people who respond from identity.

More generally, you can have a fruitful discussion about a topic only if it doesn't engage the identities of any of the participants. What makes politics and religion such minefields is that they engage so many people's identities. But you could in principle have a useful conversation about them with some people. And there are other topics that might seem harmless, like the relative merits of Deeper Life Church or Reedeemed Church, that you couldn't safely talk about with others.

The most intriguing thing about this theory, if it's right, is that it explains not merely which kinds of discussions to avoid, but how to have better ideas. If people can't think clearly about anything that has become part of their identity, then all other things being equal, the best plan is to let as few things into your identity as possible.

Most people reading this will already be fairly tolerant. But there is a step beyond thinking of yourself as x but tolerating y: not even to consider yourself an x. The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you.

http://4us.ng/politics/i-finally-realized-today-why-politics-and-religion-yield-such-uniquely-useless-discussions/#comments

bestdannyever:
I finally realized today why politics and religion

Most people reading this will already be fairly tolerant. But there is a step beyond thinking of yourself as x but tolerating y: not even to consider yourself an x. The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you.

http://4us.ng/politics/i-finally-realized-today-why-politics-and-religion-yield-such-uniquely-useless-discussions/#comments

U try......


But anyhow wey e be, ppl must argue about politics and religion because as u said, they are the only arguments that make everyone's perception about d topic right ......


So no tell us say make we no argue

lekkie073:


U try......


But anyhow wey e be, ppl must argue about politics and religion because as u said, they are the only arguments that make everyone's perception about d topic right ......


So no tell us say make we no argue

Thanks for commenting.

The purpose of any discussion na to build the both parties up. Arguing with a fixed mindset na just waste of time.

What do you expect from MATERIALLY AND SPIRITUALLY-POVERTY-STRICKEN Nigerians?

No light to see NO ROAD TO PASS!
No water TO COOK OR FLUSH SHYTE!
EBOLA efrywhia!!!!