Those who are interested in the origins of the 1971 Cadillac Eldorado might wish to check out a new round of discussions that have occurred over the last few days. Michael Karesh stopped by to offer a thoughtful perspective about why the Eldorado and its personal coupe siblings were moved to GM’s full-sized car platform (start here).
I could have elevated to the front page one of Karesh’s comments, but I didn’t want to disrupt the flow of the conversation, which also touched on other interesting topics such as the Chevrolet Corvair and Ralph Nader (start here).
What I particularly like about these discussions is that they reflect a real exchange of ideas rather than what might be called “joint press conferences,” where two sides talk past each other. In addition, there is an absence of rhetorical game playing, such as the use of the straw man fallacy (Wikipedia, 2023). Perhaps most importantly, the discussions acknowledge what we still don’t know. This points to new sets of questions that can be researched.
To me, this is a key reason why Indie Auto exists — to help cultivate discussions that can lead to a deeper level of understanding about historical events. Of course, this website does not possess the resources to nail down the answer to every question. In addition, even after bringing new facts to light, we may still disagree about why things happened the way that they did. However, we might still walk away from a discussion with a more nuanced perspective.
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RE:SOURCES
- Wikipedia; 2023. “Straw man.” Page last modified Feb. 5.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcarbrochures.org: Cadillac Eldorado (1971)
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