The Sins of Nuance
What sins are at work behind our efforts to "nuance" an issue to death?
In public discourses (by that I guess I just mean arguments online) one of the accusations that often gets bandied about is that someone is “nuancing” an issue to death. “Nuance” is an excuse to say nothing meaningful or serious, so the criticism goes.
Sometimes this criticism is valid, sometimes it isn’t. That’s not the point of this essay. In fact, I’m not going to give you any specific examples from social media.
What I’m much more interested in is what sins lie behind a corrupt use of nuance. When the critique is valid, when someone really is misusing nuance in an argument, what does that mean, is there a sin behind that, and if so, what sin or sins?
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