Reclaiming the Mirror Dimension
Once again, the Marvel Cinematic Universe shows the way to a necessary dimension.
In the first Dr. Strange MCU movie, the Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme, shows Dr. Stephen Strange how to enter a Mirror Dimension, a place where he can practice his growing mastery of the mystical arts without risk of permanent damage to the world. Of it she says:
"The Mirror Dimension, ever present but undetected. The real world isn't affected by what happens here. We use the Mirror Dimension to train, surveil, and sometimes to contain threats."
When you think about it, the science and art of debate allows us non-wizards to create our own mirror dimension, to carve out a space where our intellectual incantations can be spoken safely. It serves to train our minds, to witness the sides of an argument and in many ways, to contain the threat of bad logic, false premises, and false equivalencies.
Debate takes place in the intellectual dimension, with established rules and guidelines and is supported by research and factual presentation of evidence, stripped of its emotional components. It is a place for reason and speech - speech that carries with it no potential for physical harm – at least until humans finally master either wizardry or telekinesis.
Outside the mirror dimensions, false equivalencies are a primary tool. Just a few off my head are:
Men can have babies and if you don’t believe it AND say it out loud, you are just a genocidal transphobe.
Believing in the Constitution is fascist and authoritarian.
Speech is violence, and silence is violence, too.
Everybody and everything I don’t like is Hitler, Jim Crow, and fascist.
Christians are evil.
Limiting abortion in any way is forced pregnancy and just like the Handmaid’s Tale.
Abortion is healthcare.
Of course, every one of those is false - but I can just about guarantee you will hear someone quote them, or something very close to them - as fact within the next week.
The lack of a debate mirror dimension where these stupid fallacies, non sequiturs and false equivalence can be publicly debated and dispelled is a huge weakness in our society today and a huge reason for this is that debate has been replaced in academia (all the way down to high school) with things like Maoist struggles sessions, captive indoctrination and bias confirmation parties, as the old song goes, “where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.”
When this dimension is closed to us, people begin to practice their witchcraft in the physical world. So, rather than enter this mirror dimension, the left seems to want to practice their intellectual sorcery in our dimension where they conjure up some sort of physical response. That could by shouting someone down, barricading them in a classroom, getting them de-platformed or cancelled or as they have recently become fond of, siccing the federal government on them (like Biden did when Garland’s DOJ began treating PTA parents as domestic terrorists).
Actual reasoned debate is about the only thing I can think of that can help us out of the chaos in which we find ourselves today. It’s virtually impossible to do when the other side simply will not engage on a factual basis, nor will they abide any opinion that differs from their own. In most instances, I think there is a tacit acknowledgment from them that they can’t win if they play by real rules, so they choose to avoid coming anywhere near an honest discussion about anything.
In most cases, I don’t think they even believe what they are saying, but they can’t stop because they don’t want to lose.
So, how to break through?
Well, if you can’t go through, you go around.
The Constitution was publicly debated in the papers, through the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers. The public got to hear two sides of the argument before settling on a decision. Until I get kicked off social media, that is what I will continue to do on Facebook, through Substack and every time I can get a local paper to publish one of my letters. I write to my representatives on the state and federal level, as well as the executive branch in my state.
More people are paying attention than we think. Just because they aren’t knee deep in issues and politics doesn’t mean they don’t see, hear, and feel the impact of those issues in the pocketbook and on the home front.
Debate is powerful, that’s why the powers that be try to shut it down.
Somehow, we must conjure that mirror universe where ideas can be tested before being released on the world.
I encourage everyone to express their opinion. It matters, perhaps more than we will ever know. One thing is for sure, if it ain’t out there, it won’t be seen or heard.
As I was reading this, I was thinking - how do we fight back against those that seem to change the definition of words, apparently in the middle of the night! We need to understand, as you have pointed out, words have meanings and meanings have power.
I also write my State and Federal elected representatives. I share many of your columns, or the ideas espoused in them with many others. I don't know if it is making any impact; however, I hope it is doing so.
Thank you for your efforts.