I think it’s a mistake to see people as either Mistake theorist or Conflict theorists.
There are political problems for which the best explanation is mistake theory and there are political problems for which the best explanation is conflict theory.
Political power of various groups does impact the resulting policy. The fact that 20 years ago it was possible to extend the copyright to 70 years and now it’s not possible to create another copyright extension isn’t because people thought up new arguments about copyright but because political power shifted.
Most people are up to having some debates and not having other debates. I don’t think it’s hard to find a person on the left who’s willing to openly tell you that they aren’t open to debate with you whether or not African Americians are dumber than Whites.
“I think it’s a mistake to see people as either Mistake theorist or Conflict theorists”—true if you take the model too seriously, but this post wasn’t about testing the limits of Scott’s model, but explaining one single complication—that conflict theorists will often take on certain mistake theorist characteristics as camoflauge.
I think it’s a mistake to see people as either Mistake theorist or Conflict theorists.
There are political problems for which the best explanation is mistake theory and there are political problems for which the best explanation is conflict theory.
Political power of various groups does impact the resulting policy. The fact that 20 years ago it was possible to extend the copyright to 70 years and now it’s not possible to create another copyright extension isn’t because people thought up new arguments about copyright but because political power shifted.
Most people are up to having some debates and not having other debates. I don’t think it’s hard to find a person on the left who’s willing to openly tell you that they aren’t open to debate with you whether or not African Americians are dumber than Whites.
“I think it’s a mistake to see people as either Mistake theorist or Conflict theorists”—true if you take the model too seriously, but this post wasn’t about testing the limits of Scott’s model, but explaining one single complication—that conflict theorists will often take on certain mistake theorist characteristics as camoflauge.