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The Three Languages of Politics Kindle Edition

by Arnold Kling (Author)

67 customer reviews

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Progressives, conservatives, and libertarians use different languages to justify their beliefs. This increases polarization. This book enables readers to better understand different points of view.

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Product Details

File Size: 230 KB
Print Length: 54 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publication Date: April 12, 2013
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00CCGF81Q
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #299,950 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #87 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 90 minutes (44-64 pages) > Politics & Social Sciences
- #561 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Ideologies & Doctrines
- #1016 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Ideologies & Doctrines > Conservatism & Liberalism

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Customer Reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars

5 star		58%
4 star		25%
3 star		13%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful

How to better think and communicate, in less than an hour

By Amazon Customer on April 20, 2013

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With this extended essay, economist and blogger Arnold Kling grapples with the problem of intelligent, well-meaning and decent people talking past each other on the critical issues of the day. How can this be? What is the solution?

Arnold Kling has a hypothesis, which he calls the 'Three-axis Model'. In his model, we each have a way we tend to think and communicate about issues. These ways have polarized along three different axes (I'll get to them in a moment). Just as right handed people use their right hand without thinking, we tend to think and communicate at our comfortable point in the spectrum of each axis. This serves to quickly validate our existing views, allow us to discard discordant information and reinforces us within our tribe of similar believers. Unfortunately, just as using the wrong hand is awkward and obviously wrong, these ways are so different from how people polarized on other axes think that it marks us for dismissal by their tribes, even as it reinforces them in their own.

The challenge then is, how do we step back from these dominant ways to thinking to see the world through the eyes of others and communicate with them on terms they would understand and recognize, rather than dismiss? How do you have a discussion that informs, rather than one that simply reinforces the existing polarization? Arnold Kling here outlines the beginnings of an answer.Read more ›

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

If you want to write about political issues, read this first!

By F. Bailey Norwood on April 15, 2013

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It is rare to see an author treat all political flavors with both objective scrutiny and respect. This book can really help you see through the eyes of different political ideologies. If you want to speak or write about political issues, you should read this first to improve your understanding of political alliances and communicate better to a diverse audience.

Well written. Pleasantly succinct. Awards to the author!

Bailey Norwood

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

An insightful model for understanding ideological differences.

By Douglas on May 14, 2013

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Kling has been laying out his "three axes" model on his blog for several months now. This short kindle book explains the basic idea and then expands upon it. For the most part, I think Kling's model is accurate and effective as a means of understanding ideological positions and the language used to support them. The shortness of the book is a blessing, because the power of Kling's system is that it's so simple; it doesn't need a 300-page treatment.

That said, I do wish that Kling had spent a little more time discussing applications of the three axes to specific political issues -- including ones that don't seem to fit the mold (though I think most do). Also, some of the examples he does use aren't as "clean" as they could be, and as a result they may undersell his model. For instance, Kling uses the mortgage finance crisis as a leading example. But because Kling is an expert on the subject, he goes into greater depth and complexity on the issue than needed, when the power of his three-axes model is really in explaining the broad outlines of ideological positions rather than the nuances. The resulting analysis is somewhat messy.

Nevertheless, Kling's model is useful and (usually) accurate, and it could prove the basis for a whole research program in political science. On those grounds alone, it gets a thumbs-up.

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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

A book that tries to understand, not defeat, opposing viewpoints

By Amazon Customer on April 26, 2013

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The gist of the book is: political discourse tends to run along three axes, which are incommensurable. Liberals tend to judge along an oppressor-oppressed axis, Conservatives along a barbarian-civilization axis, Libertarians along a coercion-freedom axis. The purpose of the book is not to deconstruct and criticize what he sees as the dominant heuristics of each group, but to use them to help readers get into their ideological opposition's shoes.

The strong point of this book is in trying to put the reader into his or her ideological opponents' shoes. He brings up the ideological turing test (created by Bryan Caplan) which asks: if you were put in a room with your ideological others, could you pass as one of them? Psychology finds that, on average, liberals think they can make better conservatives than conservatives, and vice versa. Neither is right.

Now on to the parts of the book I disagreed with. Kling compares the diverging languages to an 'audible' in football: a purposeful confusion of signs to make sure the opposition doesn't know what is going on. This seems farfetched to me. Diverging language among groups that are so large, tends to be an unintentional process that indicates that there are few contacts between groups. Polite society has politics as one of its taboos, and people tend to view media outlets that they agree with in the first place; this means that the network of people actually using political language in conversation is very fractured, just what you would expect from people with little real contact (and strong enforcement within each social group).

His portrayal of the explanations for the financial crisis seemed a little problematic.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

insightful little piece

A brief, insightful look at how people with different views fail to communicate while those with similar views understand each other so well. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Andrew J. Wagner

Very interesting take on America's current ideological divide

This thesis on political language is superb. It is well worth the slog through an awkward writing style to gain the knowledge and insight Mr Kling provides.

Published 3 months ago by Brick

Not attractively laid out. Some type, etc errors ...

Not attractively laid out. Some type, etc errors in the Kindle edition. Seems thrown together. But the BIG IDEA in the book is right up there with Hegel's dialectic. A must read. Read more

Published 5 months ago by David Housholder

Hardly new

Most of the ideas here can be found from other books published before this one. The book is brief and clearly written.

Published 6 months ago by Wan, Weigang

Engaging in motivated reasoning is like arguing a case at law

Arnold Kling is a Cato Institute Adjunct Scholar, a Mercatus Center affiliate, and regularly posts to his askblog site. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Backwoods Technologist

Five Stars

Good insights.

Published 8 months ago by Tad M Johnson

An amazing book that really makes you reexamine how you think ...

An amazing book that really makes you reexamine how you think about your political views... no matter your alignment. Absolutely worth two dollars!

Published 10 months ago by Amazon Customer

Excellent book. Teaches us how to understand other perspectives ...

Excellent book. Teaches us how to understand other perspectives and how to avoid demonizing political "opponents."

Published 11 months ago by Chris Lawnsby

A must read

As a former Congressional policy adviser, the value of understanding this framework is tremendous, and would go a long way if much of the public and political pundits recognised... Read more

Published 12 months ago by David R.

Good insights into political divide

Very good book outlining how our politics have become so polarized, and offering ways to bridge the gap between those of different political persuasions.

Published 12 months ago by Careful buyer

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