As someone who has imagined himself a centrist while still being troubled by the term, I'm looking for a new word to describe the folks I hope will comprise my audience.
I'm not so much concerned that all my visitors sit in the middle politically. But I am concerned that they be willing to look beyond the dogma of both wings. I'm concerned that they hold views conditionally, subject to further evidence. I'm concerned that within the last few years they've occasionally altered their views on an issue of personal importance in response to additional data.
It's derisive, but I've always liked the vibe that comes with "non-idiotarian" when I've run across it. And I like "in god we trust, all others must bring data." I'd love it if folks would join in and brainstorm about this idea and things they've heard people say about ti that they've liked. I just asked myself if there was a word for folks who are committed to being open-minded and adjusting their hypotheses in response to new feedback. I realized that the word is scientist.
So, for the time being, my winner is scientific methodist. I still want that brainstorm, though. If I have some, you know, traffic someday.
Making up a new word when the perfect word does not exist is a very satisfying experience. Highly recommended. I believe that I invented "Dividist". In any case, I registered it so it's mine now. So I guess I should write it like this: Dividist®
ReplyDeleteIt is sort of a bizzaro world version of what you are looking for - it gets to a similar place, but by a wildly different route.
As a confirmed Dividist®, I not only must be open to changing my political perspectives, but it is mandatory that I change teams depending on who is currently controlling the field of play.
The Dividist® hypothesis does not change as long as it works. Simply stated, I get a closer approximation of the kind of government I want when one party does not control all branches of government. So far the hypothesis has held - so I'll stick to my voting heuristic.
BTW -The only way I've found to generate traffic (and it does not work very well), is to shamelessly pimp your blog when leaving comments on other blogs. Just sayin...