A kind review from Tristan Flock.
In The Three Languages of Politics, Kling argues that to understand our political opponents, we need to update the way we frame disagreements. Liberals, conservatives, and libertarians each have their own tribal language, which often baffles and infuriates outsiders. Until we grasp the nuances and assumptions of each language, mutual understanding is impossible. Fortunately, Kling provides a simple framework for making sense of these semantic differences.
I liked the book as far as it went, but it seemed a little incomplete. There are more than three languages of politics. The democratic socialist wing of the Left shares a concern with the identitarian wing about oppression, but the two groups do not mean the same thing by the term. On the other wing, a Burkean conservative and an Evangelical conservative don’t usually have much in common either. If you ever decide to write The At Least Five But Probably Less Than Thirty Languages of Politics, I expect I’ll read it.