Whether you label yourself a conservative or a liberal, a Republican or Democrat, a Trump Supporter or a Never-Trumper all of us are prone to the dangers of misconception through the labels we use to describe ourselves or others. Labels will always be with us, but we must use labels with caution and care. They have the propensity to contribute to the building and perpetuation of the Straw Man.
The Straw Man is the stereotypical picture we build of our opponents. The Straw Man is made out of straw, so he is very easy to defeat in the imaginary discourse of our minds. We invite the Straw Man into our echo chambers— our conversations with like minded people. The Straw Man is consistently inconsistent. The Straw Man has bad intentions. The Straw Man lacks morality. The Straw Man is stupid, full of stupid arguments and flawed logic. We can throw darts at the Straw Man all day long without any consequences. In an argument with the Straw Man, we always emerge triumphant. It feels good. It’s actually kind of fun. But what we don’t realize is that the Straw Man is laughing back at us. He knows that as long as we are merely throwing darts at him, that nothing real will ever change. He knows that by avoiding conversations with real flesh and blood people, we will never understand the needs, thoughts, concerns and hopes of the real people who wear the labels we abhor. As long as we’re entertaining the Straw Man, we’ll never challenge ourselves to address the weaknesses in our thinking. We’ll never root out the hypocrisy in ourselves.
Who is your Straw Man? What does he or she look like? Do they have a certain race or accent or manner of dress? The first step to overcoming the deception of the Straw Man is to recognize that you have one. The second step is to begin to question your assumptions about your Straw Man. The third and most important step is to begin to trade your Straw Man conversations with real conversations with real people who might look, act and talk like your Straw Man. Find out what they really think. Let them challenge you. Let them refine your thinking and perhaps you find that your influence with these real people will begin to grow and you can begin dismantling the Straw Man they’ve built of you.
To help dismantle the straw man, join our local Anchorage group “Brave Conversations.” Click here to receive email notifications of upcoming events. Or if you want to join in the conversation from right where you are, you may request to join our private Facebook group.