Dogmatic vs Pragmatic

[Hababi]

Are you more dogmatic or pragmatic in your political views? In other words, do you form positions based on principles (eg "there should be a wall of separation between church and state", or "government should be as small as possible") or evaluations of data on what works better?

For some reason, liberals have a reputation as being more pragmatic. And pragmatism has a better rep. Personally I think both sides are about equally dogmatic.

[gregulus]

dogmatic in the sense that they follow engrained pragmatic ideologies. said ideologies, however, are subject to change more readily than purely dogmatic beliefs.

empirical data is infinitely more trustworthy than some presupposed belief. always, always, always.

[Cain]

Are you more dogmatic or pragmatic in your political views? In other words, do you form positions based on principles (eg "there should be a wall of separation between church and state", or "government should be as small as possible") or evaluations of data on what works better?

For some reason, liberals have a reputation as being more pragmatic. And pragmatism has a better rep. Personally I think both sides are about equally dogmatic.

I think this is a silly question because it's very easy to be dogmatic about a pragmatic worldview.

And I also find that liberals are very frequently hindered in the degree to which they can be pragmatic about something because they do not often know enough information about a particular thing that may arouse their defense mechanisms to avoid jumping all over it ignorantly. In fact, liberal dissatisfaction with constant Republican invocation of conservatives' supposed primacy in the "morals" debate is probably rooted in liberal sensitivity to the fact that conservatives are actually, in general, probably MORE pragmatic and LESS concerned with moral niceties than liberals, and it offends liberals that conservatives could be amoral in so many ways and still pound on liberals for diminishing moral centeredness. Liberals are thus losing out on being superior in both information fluency and moral fluency when they should dominate in at least one on most issues.

This may seem odd, but I think it's pretty true: liberals tend to be more idealistic, less practical, and more versed in describing and understanding the world from a complex moral viewpoint, whereas conservatives tend to rely on tried-and-true information from history and political trends to evaluate what works and what doesn't and consider a negative moral consideration about a particularly effective method of accomplishing something secondary to the fact of its success. And this is why conservative accusations that liberals are destroying America's moral fabric gets liberals frothing at the mouth, because morality is probably the one thing they're strongest on.

[Permanent Solution]

I hold my ideologies very dearly but when it comes to elections or something like that I tend to be more pragmatic because my views are generally too radical to be accepted off the bat. It has to be a slow, steady progress that is made.

[deathscreamingsheep]

I suppose pragmatic to some degree. For example I generally support smaller government/lower taxes yet I supported the smoking in public places ban, the NHS, minimum wage (though not the current proposed increase) and government interventionism to combat issues like global warming. Basically I just go with whatever I think will work best.

[gregulus]

My guess is that the overwhelming majority of people in this thread will claim to be more pragmatic, as it's the nicest of the two options. "I believe this because data supports it" as opposed to "I believe this because it sounds better" or "is a better idea" (even though I stated that the majority of the people in this thread will do this very thing). A lot of people, myself included, hold certain political beliefs even though we possess an insufficient amount of evidence to support our claims, yet we defend them fervently. Everyone is dogmatic to a degree. But my initial statement holds true. Empirical data is always more trustworthy than a presupposed belief. It's just that people don't always have access to/take the time to find data to support their claims.

Even when you look for data, though, you have to wade through a ton of crap to get to anything good. That's frustrating.

[Futue te Ipsum]

Im going to say pragmatic because that makes me look better than if I say dogmatic.

[Reaganista]

I think this is a silly question
coulda stopped there imo

[spitfirejunky]

The two don't even contrast.

[Krabsworth]

I'm Illmatic

[italic zero]

Dogmatix

[Iskandar]

Pragmatic. I'm sick of dogma.

I don't have try hard to be where I am politically. I dunno mang it jes' happen.

[PerpetualBurn]

Are you more dogmatic or pragmatic in your political views?

No.