“Every categorical statement is political” — I keep coming back to this proposition by my critical theory professor. It’s such a stupid, poisonous idea. It discounts science, art, and the dialectical process. And I see it has caught on like a plague. In this formulation, every truth becomes an argument against another truth. But that is a twisted way to engage with the world. We need to accept some cognitive dissonance. The partially right is partially wrong and vice versa.

There is a disinterested scientific mode of discourse. There is an artistic mode for exploring irrational human truth. You keep the modes separate much like you follow the rules of a game. Sure you can cheat and make the game political, but cheating is cheating. It is possible not to cheat! There is a dispassionate, dialectical approach to provocation that makes you smarter. This approach makes you stupid.