Dissenting from Dissent.

All too often one of the whines we hear from the left is how dissent is not tolerated in this nation. What do they mean? More often then not it means people dissent from their view.

Yehudit relates an e-mail list exchange at Winds of Change the most important part of which is:

Ben Levy's Evaluation and Dissent Flowchart for non-Trivial Strategic Decision Making.
1) Evaluate Decision. Is there dissent?
A. Yes. Proceed to Step 2.
B. No. No? Bull. Unless your problem is trivial (Who wants Ice Cream?) there is always dissent. You've simply managed to ignore it already. Proceed directly to Step 2.A
2) Do you wish to Ignore Dissent?
A. Yes, Ignore Dissent. Implement Your Decision. You're done!
B. No, Do not Ignore Dissent. Review situation, and generate New Decision. Return to step 1.

Source: Winds of Change - SCENES FROM AN EMAIL LIST (by Yehudit) Dissent is not some magic wand that gives credibility to the dissenter. After all, there are people yet who dissent from the idea the world is roughly speherical, does that make them more enlightened?

In fact, and the comments that follow the above flow, it is obvious deviation and criticism of dissent is every bit as protected as dissent is (by our first amendment, it is pointed out putting dissenters in front of firing squads is actually 2A in its extreme form). The whine we hear is not brave dissent but people who lost an argument and are trying to win the argument by trying to convince everyone else that dissent automatically makes them correct.

Go ahead dissent, but don't whine or be surprised when people don't agree with you. After all, isn't dissent all about being disagreeable with the majority?