@Bi: reductive dichotomy - like vs. dislike --- 1. My understanding: If I expand my circle, I will narrow, my interlocutor’s circle. Once I click “dislike”, I place myself in the opposite camp. It is difficult to find convergence between such clearly entrenched antagonist positions. No one know why I like or dislike the thing, the person, the idea. I narrow my circle to the minimum, almost meaningless.

2. If we have two blunt options only, “like” and “dislike”, without nuances, then we may have a problem. I do not say that truth (or compromise) is always in the middle. But I dare to say that truth is rarely in the extremes.

3. I also had in mind the Bolsheviks’ slogan: whoever is not with us (like) is against us (dislike). I am aware that this is taken out of the Biblical context, but even the Evangelists were neither very subtle about the meaning of this pronouncement, nor very clear for that matter.

“For whoever is not against us is for us”|. Mark 9:40

"Do not stop him," Jesus replied, "for whoever is not against you is for you." Luke 9:50

“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” Matthew 12:30

Source author: Petru Dumitriu PetruD@diplomacy.edu