It is an all too common simplistic and very shallow kind of remark.
It is symptomatic of a world view that insists on purity tests and loyalty tests. Fundamentally it is binary thinking; the False Dichotomy logical fallacy. The world is full of nuance and shades of grey and degrees of things and gradations. It is a false choice. It is the most pernicious of all logical fallacies and the most common. It is the kind of thinking that scientists and engineers and doctors avoid. Scientists rarely speak in certainties but explain the limits of the data and the theory. Doctors don't say "you're a goner" but rather things like "If you do A and B you will greatly improve your chance of living more than six months". (Of course there are many exceptions.)
You can avoid it too, if you set your mind to it. ("You" being used in the plural, general sense, address all who are prone to it.) It is easy to stop that kind of thinking if you become aware of it and notice it every time you use it and every time you see others use it. Look for it. Train yourself.
I dread the torrent of "He blinked" remarks forthcoming against Prime Minister Dr. Mark Carney, D.Phil. Oxford, B.A. Harvard, when he negotiates some kind of resolution to the tariffs. Probably a NAFTA 3.0 (CUSMA 2.0), similar to what previous pragmatic Canadian Prime Ministers negotiated.
Pragmatism is NOT a sign of weakness. It is one thing to say tRump blinked because he is fundamentally a weak sack of shit with no vision and no strategic understanding and no thought out plan. tRump is not pragmatic or rational. He is reactive and emotional.
Let's not apply the slur against intelligent caring pragmatic leaders like Carney who are facing a challenge that would make 99.9% of DU members quake in their boots because of the weight of the responsibility.
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