Distinctions

If we fail to make relevant distinctions, we fail to heed the real differences in the world, and are trying to navigate it blind to its actual complexity.  In current debates, our friends on the Left are having difficulty paying due regard to relevant distinctions. There is a difference between subjecting someone to social opprobrium, including loss of employment, for his outrageous speech, and a government deploying the force of law against him. The latter, not the former, violates the First Amendment. There is a difference between government using the coercive force of law against outrageous speech, and using it against those who incite specific violent acts. The former violates the First Amendment, the latter does not. Being opposed to immigration should be distinguished from being opposed to illegal immigration. Government agents rounding up and deporting people without legal justification should be distinguished from doing this when this is what our immigration laws prescribe. Fascism needs to be distinguished from enforcing unpopular laws made by elected representatives in a democracy. Not approving of a law must be distinguished from not being obligated to obey it. Being opposed to a government program intended to mitigate some evil, is not being opposed to that evil. Government not funding some organization or activity is distinct from government prohibiting it, even if that funding is necessary for it. Government lessening the increase in its planned funding for something should be distinguished from government cutting its funding. What someone says or does implying something about his beliefs, intentions, or actions must be distinguished from what he says or does reminding you of something. Positive rights that impose positive duties on others must be distinguished from negative rights that simply prohibit certain kinds of interference. Actions, and dispositions to act, that treat persons unjustly simply because of their race are racist. ,Racism ought to be distinguished from, among other things, having negative beliefs about particular individuals of a race, or about the race as a whole. We should distinguish conspiracy theories which are false and/or unreasonable from those that are true and/or reasonable.