Intellectual debates overshoot into mirrored extremes due to sectarian culture

Evidence

Characteristically—the sectarian and self-righteous climate of critical intellectual work in England being what it is, and its dependency being so marked—the arguments and debates have most frequently been over-polarized into their extremes. At these extremities, they frequently appear only as mirror-reflections or inversions of one another. Here, the broad typologies we have been working with—for the sake of convenient exposition—become the prison-house of thought. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 196

Categorization

• XREF: The Frankfurt School history similarly describes German disputes as proxy arenas where method conflicts concealed substantive theory conflicts.