Don't Be 'Nuanced and Thoughtful.'

It’s not good. It’s not bad. But it’s a terrible ultimate objective.

I know, I know. Mondays and Thursdays, I said. Apologies. As the impending maelstrom of senior year approaches, I’m realizing that quality over quantity is probably the name of the game for this wild-haired college student, and conveniently lines up with my columnist responsibilities at Grove City’s newspaper this year. My weekend has been a haze of DC meetings, running from one thing to another with little else but a Metrocard and a phone I’m praying doesn’t die. One canceled flight and a hundred unplanned bucks later, and I’m back in business, albeit a day later than anticipated. But I’m glad it happened, partially because it let me meet some very interesting people, and also because it gave me the anecdote that blossomed into this column.

I was at coffee with a mentor of mine/a political Gandalf-type-of-person (if you’re reading this, man, that’s a wisdom thing, not an age thing, calm down), and we eventually got around to the topic of some of the most annoying terms we hear thrown around in modern political discourse, and anyone who knows me knows this is something I can go for ad infinitum. The top most annoying word is politics for me has to be woke, in case it’s not obvious, closely followed by racist and fascist (in Orwell’s words, they’re all starting to mean nothing except ‘something not desirable’). But I realized a new one of those as we were talking, and it was an insight that made the entire canceled flight worthwhile. It’s the term nuanced and thoughtful.

This may not be a term you’re super familiar with if you don’t hang out in certain political corners, but for someone who essentially lives in the Trump-critical, evangelical heavy wing of the political Right, it’s been a term that I hear thrown around all. The. Time. Events are marketed as thoughtful conversations about issues of relevance (presumable in contrast to other conversations that don’t involve thoughts apparently), it’s a tremendous compliment to many to be told that they’re nuanced, and pieces are described as nuanced and thoughtful responses to the bloviations of the other side.

And I get it—it’s meant as a positive compliment of one’s discernment and rhetorical skills, and I know that people who use this as a compliment truly mean to build up the object of their praise. But it’s always struck me as an odd phrase: whenever you put an argument made of thoughts out into the world of ideas, isn’t it thoughtful by default? It certainly seems to be.

Furthermore, what’s this term nuanced all about? The dictionary will tell you it’s “characterized by subtle shades of meaning or expression,” meaning that nuanced thinkers are avoiding broad brushstroke positions and taking on the challenge of “calling balls and strikes,” as it were, and being willing to admit when your philosophical allies are wrong and your philosophical opponents are right. And maybe that’s where we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel—in the end, right and wrong are the deciding factors. Nuanced analysis doesn’t exclude people from being wrong. And thoughtful processes don’t rule out the possibility that intelligent, moral thinkers make bad calls.

Does every moral debate of our day demand a nuanced, non-black-and-white solution? Clearly, there are some that don’t. From my recent piece at the Daily Caller:

“It is on us, as believers in medical ethics and people who care about the health and safety of America’s young people, to draw a line in the sand on this issue. We cannot tone police or seek nuanced consensus on the risks of sex reassignment surgery to children. The age we live in demands compassion that only the truth can provide. There are many issues on which we can agree to differ in the modern age. For the sake of my generation’s future, this isn’t one of them.”

I’ve been blessed in this very early stage of my career to have worked with many people who truly are bringing nuance in areas where it’s vitally necessary, and who are thinking seriously about issues that far too many others are reacting blindly or partisanly to, and for this, I’m incredibly grateful. But what they understand, and what we all have to bear in mind, is that nuance and thoughtfulness won’t get us all of the way to the morally good answers that we have a responsibility to provide.

God will not be granting entrance to heaven with a refrain of “Well done, my nuanced and thoughtful servant.” It’s simply not the ultimate goal—and for those of us who value, take pride in, and yes, idolize, our intellect and ability to pull solid non-partisan arguments together, it’s an absolutely critical thing to remember.