A senator’s demand for a yes-or-no answer on Edward Snowden’s status as a traitor reveals a trap by stripping context. Reducing complex truths to binaries repeatedly fails, yet it is a tool continually employed.
Are all whistleblowers traitors or ethical paragons? Is revealing a partner’s health issue betrayal or care?
Simplistic binary (or tribal) thinking obscures nuance, undermining responsibility and understanding of categorical delineation. Thus, to avoid the trap, we eschew firm statements, falling into another trap: to be labeled untrustworthy relativists.