Rick Yancey Quotes

Mankind likes to think in terms of extreme opposites. It is given to formulating its beliefs in terms of Either/Ors, between which it recognizes no intermediate possibilities.

You either are or you're not.

Everything in our world tends to be built on either/ors, and either/ors inevitably make enemies.

Since we do operate in a binary world, if there's something that cannot be this or that, it drives us crazy.

I'm not going to be the rock star of the far right and frankly on the rock star of the far left.

I was like the good girl, bad girl, there were no grey areas for me.

I don't think 'my way or the highway' works, that mentality. And that's what the Tea Party has done: drawn a line in the sand. I'm sorry - that doesn't work in business, that doesn't work in your family, it certainly doesn't work in government and our Congress.

The political system loves the extremes, it doesn't so much show a lot love for the moderates.

Partisanship is our great curse. We too readily assume that everything has two sides and that it is our duty to be on one or the other.

We can't allow ourselves to descend down the rabbit hole of unbridled partisanship for partisan sake.

I have a very extreme state of mind. Things are very black or very white.

Each side had its uninformed fanatics. And each side had political leaders who fanned the flames with their rhetoric.

We don't really have elections; we fight crusades. Each side usually believes that it, and it alone, represents the true faith.

I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the middle.

Partisanship has gotten worse and worse.

The world is becoming very black and white. People are striving for perfection where only the best is acceptable. If we continue down this road, then we will lose everything that is human.

The extremists are talking too loudly, and everyone is convinced that only he is on the right side.

You are either with me or you're not.

The strife of politics tends to unsettle the calmest understanding, and ulcerate the most benevolent heart. There are no bigotries or absurdities too gross for parties to create or adopt under the stimulus of political passions.

In Poland a man must be one thing: white or black, here or there, with us or against us -- clearly, openly, without hesitations. . . . We lack the liberal, democratic tradition rich in all its gradations. We have instead the tradition of struggle: the extreme situation, the final gesture.

I never liked the middle ground-the most boring place in the world.

In a world of increasing grey areas, we are becoming more and more entrenched in black and white positions.

The stupidity of tribalism has made politics primarily about partisan identities, not persuasion or policy. The screamers on the right and left fuel one another. In a nation as big as ours, there is always someone somewhere saying something stupid—but tribalism takes this fact as its lifeblood. And it’s the excuse for otherwise civic-minded Americans to ignore the nuts in their own party and obsess only over the nuts in the other party. We’re tempted to think that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. It takes a genuine leader to remind us that most of the time, the enemy of our enemy is still a jackass.

A fanatic is always the fellow that is on the opposite side.

The organizer must become schizoid, politically, in order to slip into becoming a true believer. Before men can act an issue must be polarized. Men will act when they are convinced their cause is 100 percent on the side of the angels and that the opposition are 100 percent on the side of the devil. He knows there can be no action until issues are polarized to this degree.