The Political Ladder

Hey! Who put this fence here?

Before you tear down a fence, understand why it was built.

That's the lesson of Chesterton's Fence. G.K. Chesterton wrote that if you come across a fence blocking a road and don't understand its purpose, you shouldn't remove it. The person who built it had a reason. Maybe there's a cliff on the other side, Jurassic Park dinosaurs, or something else entirely.

Politics is full of fences, all built by people who thought they were solving a problem. Before we tear them down (or defend them blindly), shouldn't we first understand what problem they were supposed to solve?

That requires patience. Curiosity. A willingness to assume the other side isn't stupid, evil, or brainwashed, just working from different information or different but also important values.

This article is about climbing the ladder from reactive to thoughtful. From tribal to curious. From "my side vs. your side" to "what's actually true?"

Climb the Ladder

We all know the left-to-right scale of progressive to conservative, but some see politics as also having a top-to-bottom dimension. There are 4 characters on this scale: one that treats politics as a war, one that guards their side's answer, one that follows their team, and one that sees politics a bit more for what it really is: a complicated, confusing gray area that doesn't have any "right" answers (though sometimes there are obvious wrong answers).

Tim Urban of Wait But Why describes a ladder like this in his book What's Our Problem? Here's our Utah version, borrowed from the bees. When a honeybee swarm picks a new home, scout bees fly out to inspect each site themselves and dance for the one they like. Each scout's dance gets weaker every trip, so no bee locks in, and the swarm usually picks the best site. A state decides better the same way: with more Scouts.

Scout Follower Guard Stinger

Bottom rung

The Stinger

Sits at the bottom. Treats disagreement as an attack and would rather sting than listen. "My side is right, yours is evil." "I won't listen to any other argument." They never question their own beliefs. Challenge them and they attack you personally. Their motto is basically "agree with me or you're a Nazi/Communist/Fascist/Terrorist." They won't be convinced and they won't listen to anything.

One quick test to see if they (or you) are a Stinger is to ask: "Why would the other side believe what they believe?" If the answer is "They are evil, stupid, or brainwashed," that's Stinger territory.

Low rung

The Guard

A bit above the Stinger. Like a guard bee at the hive entrance, they check every idea coming in and only let in what smells like home. They're actually pretty intelligent thinkers; there's just one problem: they use that thinking to confirm their belief no matter what. Think of flat earthers. They have a belief and they use facts to cherry-pick and validate their own argument. Conspiracy theorists start out with the view and then research things to strengthen their belief. The CIA is after me, 9/11 was orchestrated by Americans, the Illuminati are under the Denver Airport.

Guards have tricks up their sleeves to argue points with irrelevant details that are hard to spot. Ask yourself if there is anything you could say to actually make this person change their mind. They show confirmation bias, which is when we only see or remember information that agrees with us, while info we disagree with is always fake news.

Higher rung

The Follower

Higher up on the ladder. Like a bee following another bee's dance, they trust the people they trust. Politics is their team sport. They root for their side to win. They don't know or care enough to see the issues more deeply. When you challenge them, they deflect. "My party, right or wrong."

Followers know things are more complicated than Stingers think. But they've picked a team and they're not switching. They might admit their side screws up sometimes, but still vote straight ticket every year.

In slight defense of Followers, we see ourselves as having a basic set of morals and nobody has the time to understand every problem in politics, so we find a group with similar values and we roll with it.

Top rung

The Scout

Up top. Like a scout bee, they go and look for themselves, report what they find, and switch when they find something better. They ask what's actually true. What actually works. They question their own beliefs. Genuinely curious about opposing views. When challenged, they listen. Ask questions. Change their mind when the evidence says they should. "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

Scouts have principles but could be persuaded. They vote on issues, not teams. Regardless of their beliefs, they can explain the other side without making it sound stupid. If you consider this empty moralizing, at least consider this: the best way to get more ammo to use against someone is to genuinely understand their view. Use that with discretion, as you might accidentally learn something along the way.

Uh-oh, so what am I?

Well, we all think we're Scouts, but really we can all work to move up the ladder. Genuinely ask yourself:

• "Can I at least think of some kind of evidence that would change my mind on this?"
• "What political idea have I changed my mind on in the past 2 years?"
• "When was the last time I read an article that had a headline I disagreed with?"

Don't be afraid that learning the other side will change you or your morals. You can learn about climate change and still see it as an acceptable cost to heating your home. You can learn about how vaccines don't cause autism and still take your vitamins and drink your healthy remedies. You can love driving your car and alone time with your favorite tunes while also learning about how public transportation might change your life.

"It is the mark of an educated person to entertain a thought without accepting it."

"If something can be destroyed by the truth, it should be."

Wait, doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of this website?

Yeah, that's actually kind of a good point. Using this bill tracker that automatically sorts the views of your favorite legislators or organizations might make us all move lower on the ladder.

That leads us to the fun part of this article. Click the button below to take an assessment on different political topics to see where you are Left/Right and Top/Bottom. These answers are confidential and only stored on your device, so answer truthfully. It's okay to see that you are reacting lower than you would like. In fact, that is the most valuable answer! After answering those questions, go to Climb so you will get personalized challenge prompts to move you up the ladder, starting off easy and becoming more difficult over time.

Give me an example

High-rung questions sound different: What problem is this trying to solve? What would change my mind? Why did someone put up this fence in the first place?

Take plastic.

A low-rung left would say that "using single-use plastic is an immoral action with stupid humans destroying the environment for their own selfish benefit."

A low-rung right might say "Plastic is useful in our lives and those leftists just want to take away everyone's comforts because they're elitist preachers."

A high-rung left might say "Even if plastic can make our lives easier in the short term, with how much we are producing we will severely shorten our lives and create so much pollution it isn't worth it in the end."

A high-rung right might say "Even though plastic causes a lot of damage, we have to trust in human ingenuity to solve this problem for us down the road. For now, it is a quick way that low-income people can increase the quality of their lives."

Last of all, be kind

The world is a complicated, messy, confusing place. Don't raise a shield and sword. Sit down and pour a cup of tea (or Diet Coke) with your opposites. Remember Chesterton's Fence: if you don't understand why a law or rule exists, don't be so eager to dismantle it.