Your seven examples are “arguments” I’m long familiar with but, taken together, they evoke a more general point: the ever-creative gear-shifting humans are capable of when determined to defend a pre-ordained conclusion. I’m wondering if these seven exemplify Jonathan Haidt’s notion of “motivated reasoning.” Something akin to this happens in ordinary policy argument too. (Do we need a tax cut to grow the economy or because we’ve “overcharged” the taxpayers? Oh, whatever, as long as it passes!) One more thought: Jews have been around a very long time and been key players in a lot of world history so it’s perhaps no surprise that they’ve managed to provoke such a rich collection of hostile “arguments.”
Your seven examples are “arguments” I’m long familiar with but, taken together, they evoke a more general point: the ever-creative gear-shifting humans are capable of when determined to defend a pre-ordained conclusion. I’m wondering if these seven exemplify Jonathan Haidt’s notion of “motivated reasoning.” Something akin to this happens in ordinary policy argument too. (Do we need a tax cut to grow the economy or because we’ve “overcharged” the taxpayers? Oh, whatever, as long as it passes!) One more thought: Jews have been around a very long time and been key players in a lot of world history so it’s perhaps no surprise that they’ve managed to provoke such a rich collection of hostile “arguments.”