Fecundity | Independent, evidence-based inquiry

Political Rhetoric as Shibboleths

July 4, 2020
1,813 words (~9 minutes) Tags: opinion third-person

Political rhetoric comprises some of the worst excuses for dialogue known to human civilization. In this article, the concept of a shibboleth, which comes from an example of sectarian conflict in the Hebrew Bible, is used to explain a function of slogans in the context of political rhetoric, and the characteristics of shibboleths that make them inimical to independent, critical thinking – namely conformity, superficiality, and exclusion of non-binary viewpoints – are examined.

About

My name is Joshua Born. I am an M.S.-level statistician. I would have liked to have been a professional scholar, but for many years I worked a previous career as a software developer, tried out different things, etc. etc., and life passed me by.

This blog is an outlet for me to explore my own interests in my personal time, including scholarly interests. Most of my empirical research interests are around birth control and abortion. I am also interested in critical thinking in the analysis and interpretation of empirical evidence.