Bill Raspberry brings a lack of pretention to his syndicated column that may be self-defeating. He writes so plainly that I fear I've sometimes underestimated his abililty to identify what's crucial.
This morning's column (Albuquerque Journal) on the "all-or-nothing syndrome" is a case in point.
Raspberry bemoans what he calls, at one point, "the death of nuance." I might have said "a refusal to see complexity."
Semantics aside, Raspberry is complaining about citizens and news organizations, so-called, that mindlesslessly distort reality. He warns that "all or nothing at all is a pretty good path to nothing at all."
I could not agree more.
I would go deeper, though, arguing that the "all-or-nothing syndrome" is the imposition of a moral framework to obscure reality as well as an assault on rationality.
I think that's going deeper, but Raspberry might call it pretention.