Well, imo, the counter strategy cannot be "the end justifies the means" or you might as well just let the Brumars of the world win now and spare yourself the trouble of turning in to them.
I think the only thing you can do is keep from becoming what you don't like in others. I can't stand the exaggerations and outright lies I see, so I'm not going to engage in that myself, even if it is a successful debating technique (though I would argue it is patently unsuccessful, in the long run, because more people can figure out that some of the gross overstatements are lies. Most people, for example, know some liberals- but I doubt very many people have ever met a liberal who loves Castro, or who loves communism. So I think the "end justifies the means" mindset, contains the seeds of its own destruction. It may take a while to self destruct, and it may take some valuable real estate, and human lives with it, when it goes, but eventually I think that sort of mindset loses. Of course I could be wrong about that, in which case, life as we know it now in the US is pretty much doomed.) |
