thom w wrote:
From what I can find on line, Tahoe residents are asked to rake their pine needles. They are asked to not leave the ground bare, but not leave more than an inch on bare ground and none anywhere besides bare ground. It's a matter of balancing fire risk against erosion. I'm sorry if the word balance confused you.
"Balance" is one of those words in that category of words that cause great consternation among right wingers, who prefer to see things in black and white. It's from a category of words having to do with grey areas, objectivity, moderation, complexity, etc. Attempting to use such words while discussing right winger's dogmatic beliefs (which can encompass all subject matter from reality to fantasy, or in other words, everything) can get dicey and unpredictable.
Besides causing confusion, those kinds of words somehow stimulate the Amygdala section of the brain, which generate fear and base instinct/survival types of emotions. Apparently, the prospect of dogmatic wingers recognizing shades of grey, objectivity, complexity, etc., are a source of fear that their survival/identity is being threatening.
This is the pattern, anyway, that I have observed while interacting with wingers.
It's useful for normal folk, who tend to be very comfortable with shades-of-grey type words in their normal every day discourse, to try to remember that when conversing with wingers, tossing around those shades-of-grey types of words is like tossing a grenade. It can startle and scare away wingers when you weren't trying to.
Sometimes giving a warning first before tossing it can help. "Ok, now Im' going to use a word that might cause some fear and trepidation so I thought I would give you a chance to prepare for it...ok...ready?...Here it comes........I'm a conservative who disagrees with Trump.........Hey, where are you going?"