Left Is Right and Right Is Wrong

本文是林炎平博士写给孩子和孩子家长的一篇关于此次美国大选的社会政治科普读物。因为 right 一词的语义双关，难以在中文里体现，此文就不翻译成中文了。有兴趣和希望培养独立思考、逻辑思辨能力的读者请读英文原文。

Left Is Right and Right Is Wrong

-  Direction, Justice or Politics?

林炎平

This article is intended to my two sons, Alexander 13 and Oliver 11. Close to the US election, they often came back from school uttering out some curses against Donald Trump, then the presidential candidate and now the president-elect of the USA. I did not know how to discuss with them on this issue. It seems that their usual tolerance towards almost everything at the school suddenly took the opposite direction. They knew little about US politics or election, let alone Trump. What they were criticizing Trump was exactly the replica of that of CNN and other so called “main stream media”. How could youngsters utter out such content full of hatred against someone they did not even know? Actually, I was not surprised, but deeply worried. Here is what I have to say to them. Hopefully some otherparents will find this useful in talking with their children in the similar topics.

Dear Sons,

I feel I have to talk with you in a serious way. Maybe writing you serves this purpose better. I want you to know that I am not only your father, but also, more importantly, your friend. I hope you regard me more as a buddy than a parent.

I know Alexander likes debate and is a sharp debater. I also know Oliver has strong opinions with nice and polite disguise. I am usually so confident on your school that as long as your school teaches you, I don’t need to pay extra attention. This time, it is a bit different, because it is exactly what you brought back from the school that worries me. I here talk with you by written words, which serves as a reference that you can refer later to check its lasting correctness or incorrectness or as a target that you can criticise now and in future.

The topicis about politics. Once you talk about politics, there is a spectrum constituted by different positions, from left to right. Yes, we are talking about left and right in the sense of politics. Somehow in the history of politics it came to this mutual reference: the left means the minds that are more liberal and want to change; and the right means the minds that are more conservative and want to preserve status quo.

The Beginning of the Story

Let us clarify the title of this article. What the heck is “left is right and right is wrong”? It sounds so wired. In the sense of direction, how can left be right? Or, in the sense of justice, how can something that is correct be wrong? It is ominously confusing and it can generate much misleading, just like what we found in our politics. Of course, it means more than just direction or justice. It can be politics and it is confusing just like politics.

The story of its origin is a true one. It happened to me many years ago, when I took my road test for my driver’s license in Montreal. It was my second year in Canada after getting into McGill University to pursue my Ph.D.

The monitor in my car for the test instructed me to turn left at the next corner. Somehow some road noise blurred his voice and I had to confirm: “turn left?”

“Right.” replied him.

Then at the corner I turned right.

At the end of the test, the monitor told me that he should fail me, because I did not obey his instruction and turned opposite direction to his instruction.

“I asked if it was left, you told me it was right!” I argued.

“I said ‘right’ to confirm left.” He shot back with his detectable French accent.

The arguing went nowhere, and at the end I thought I would fail the test anyway.

“So, you meant left by telling me right? So, right means left?”

“Yes. Left is right and right is wrong!” He concluded.

“ Left is right and right is wrong? What the lousy language is this?" Realizing there were so many confusions and conflictions in this short sentence, I could not help but just let it go.

“What did you say? Lousy language?” He looked amazed. I thought I said something gravely politically incorrect and so I was doomed.

“Great! You are so right. It is indeed a lousy language! Anyway, your mistake was not that big and the rest was perfect. Go to the waiting area for your paper.” He smiled friendly and cunningly.

Passed? I could not believe my ears. I knew, or I guessed I knew, the reason many months, if not years, later. I love Quebec and Quebecois. I love Canada and Canadian. This incident was just one of thousand reasons for me to understand, value and love this great nation. I indeed love both official language too. After all, which language does not have funny confusions?

OK. “Left is right and right is wrong.” All the confusions are originated in the word “right”. Are we talking about direction or justice? This is the question.

To go Right or not to go? To do Right or not to do? These are the questions and we are talking about them here, followed by politics.

The Spirit of Criticism Is the Key

Let us put this dilemma aside for awhile and talk about life and politics.

Only those that allow you to criticize are worth being loved. I try very hard to apply this to myself because I want to be adorable. This is why I always allow you to criticise me.

Remember the argument we had that day we had lunch together? I asked Alexander not to only eat rice cooked with pork and try something different.

Alexander got annoyed: “You eat the same things that you like every time. I only eat my choice but you not merely eat your own same stuff, but try to persuade everyone to eat the same thing as you do.”

This could get many parents angry, but I really saw the merits of Alexander’s argument and also appreciated his sharpness. Probably this was one the reasons that he got the highest mark at school debating.

“You may eat the same foods all the time as long as you have enough variety.” This was my point.

I want you to be critical on things. It is the basic principle of science and philosophy. For this reason, we all, including you, should face the criticism from other people with open mind and serenity.

You both like chess. Criticism and debate are like chess games. The only thing you should dislike is your mistakes. Learn from them, improve and go on.

You have very good logic ability and I really love to see that. Here I am going to have a discussion with you and it is based on logic. After all, we are going to talk about left, right and logic, which are huge part of the education you are having now. Let us refresh the opening dilemma:

Left is Right and Right is Wrong.

This time, not only direction and justice, but also politics.

A Few Trump Questions

It is not Trump that is the question, rather it is our prejudice that is.

You came back from school, cursing Trump as a racist, sexist, xenophobe, gay hater and Muslim hater. You called him stupid. Calling names on politicians is the unique valuable right possessed by the citizens in the West. I often exercise my right too and I call B. Obama “useless” and J. Trudeau “stupid”. I called Trump “stupid” too when he verbally attacked the Muslim couple whose son died in Afghanistan as a brave serviceman, just because they criticised him in the Conference of DNC (Democratic National Committee).

But what troubled me is that you showed unusual intolerance against someone whom you did not really know in the game that you understood little. The person is Trump and the game is politics. I am not sure whether what you said was from your fellow classmates or the school teachers. But either way, it is a worrisome issue, because either your school influenced you with such intolerance or did nothing when you were influenced by such intolerance.

It is OK to call some or all politicians stupid and useless, but we have to admit that we are all useless and stupid somewhere and sometimes. In this sense, we are all equal. But, at the end, we have to justify what we claim. Is Trump of anything that is labelled on him as we just mentioned?  There is no evidence. It is extremely unfair to charge some one with such fabricated titles.

Let us look into another case. A convicted criminal called Barry was elected as the mayor of Washington DC, by mostly African American voters, which happened about 20 years ago. Media did not cry much or even did not cry, then and now. Barry was a drug dealer and he committed his crimes during his mayoral. To everyone’s surprise, he was re-elected as mayor in DC. He was black and the voters wereover 90% black.

Marion Barry

Did the media do anything to criticize him? Almost nothing! On the other hand, Trump does not commit any crime but he was portrayed as a criminal. If you don’t believe it, let us research this issue further.

Anti-immigration – A Fiction

Trump vowed to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the USA and get them out if they were already in. This was labelled as anti-immigrants. Since it is anti-immigration, it is racism. That is enough to prove Trump is a racist. It is pretty powerful logic, but it is only good for illogical fellows.

How can stopping illegal immigrants be distorted into against immigrants? Huge number of people want to immigrate into the USA and they are requested to follow the immigration laws. What are the immigration officers of USA doing inside and outside the USA? They are working hard to let the ones meeting the requirements in and keep those who do not out. Are they anti-immigration? Of course, not. If they are not, why should Trump be labelled as one? We have to ask: since when the illegal immigration equals immigration? Would you consider someone uninvited by you entering your home something you should tolerate?

If they are not invited, should you ask them to leave? If they do not leave, would you ask for the help from the police to force them to leave? Deporting the illegal immigrants is exactly like this. And deporting those who with criminal records is even urgent and legitimate.

Some young students defend the interest of the illegal immigrants. They want their school to be the sanctuary to the immigrants. However, ask them if their parents want to live inside the neighbourhood of the illegal immigrants. Let us investigate which of them eventually choose to live in neighbourhood of illegal immigrants and refugees.

Tax Evasion – without Substance

Media also are loud on Trump’s tax return, calling him cheating on income tax. Their logic went like this: since Trump did not release his tax return, it is the proof that Trump committed tax evasion.

But the reality should be: if Trump had violated the tax law, the taxman and police would have gone after him. Since Trump has not been in trouble with taxation,it can only mean one thing - he did not break the law. Then one can persist: why did not he release his tax return if he is clean? You have to understand that a person with business, especially with big business, usually has very complicated tax return. Also, they, like every one of us, want to pay as little tax as legally possible.

It is wise for Trump not to release his tax return, because once he released it,it could be interpreted, by so called experts hired by his political opponents, in any way they want. The ordinary citizens do not and have little time to try to understand the legal details of his tax return, which would end up they have to buy or be influenced by the interpretations of these hostile experts. With the media doing the fanfare work, people would have no chance to distinguish which side is truthful.

After all, there is no law to force a presidential candidate to release the tax return and there is the legal system dealing with tax crime, why should we be interested in Trump’s tax return?

Clintons’ Problems – A Real Issue

On the other hand, it is a must to investigate Clintons’ foundation and Hillary Clinton’s using private email address to handle governmental affairs. Is not it strange that the dealing of Clinton’s private foundation was mixed with Clinton’s official position as secretary of state? There is an obvious and unexplainable question: How did Clintons become rich by running a foundation?

We all know that when people made a lot of money, some of them, like Gates,establish a foundation to reciprocate the society. Foundation is a charity entity and you do not make money by running it. However, in Clintons’ case, it is totally contrary. They left White House, according to Hillary Clinton, virtually bankrupted. Then suddenly they started a foundation in their names, and then in a blink of eye, they became so rich. By what means can this be achieved? What is the mechanism for such amazing financial success? Everyone, who is not completely stupid or fanatic, knows there is a problem.

This is a real issue in the presidential campaign, but most media conspicuously ignored this.

（To be continued.）