How 'Nuance Trolling' Derails Important Conversations

It's not true that it's too 'complex' to improve life for the average person

I recently learned a new term: "nuance trolling."

This phenomenon occurs when, in a public debate, someone suggests that there is actually a solution to, say, a lack of affordable health care in the US. The rejoinder will be that it's "too complex" to institute a single-payer healthcare system or even to stop forcing Americans into massive debt for healthcare.

The same goes for making higher education and housing affordable, reducing income inequality, or creating standards to protect employees from overwork. Basically, anything that could improve the average person's life is just impossibly complex and unachievable, and anyone who can't see this is simply dumb, naive, or both.

While it's true that nuance trolls are annoying, that isn't the primary problem with them. The real issue is that they make it nearly impossible to have a good-faith discussion about critical issues. Nuance trolls are omnipresent in the media and DC think tanks and are treated as though they are the only reasonabl…