Why Facts No Longer Matter
POSTED BY: Magonsdaughter
UPDATED: Sunday, June 16, 2024 02:43
VIEWED: 4546
PAGE 1 of 6
Never let the truth get in the way of a good conspiracy theory, eh PN?
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_
backfire/
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Awesome article. A reason why our world is insane; hopefully a solution can be found before we get any more harmful than we are.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Katesfriend:
Awesome article. A reason why our world is insane; hopefully a solution can be found before we get any more harmful than we are.
Who the fuck is kate? and why are you her friend?
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Quote:This.
From the article:One avenue may involve self-esteem. Nyhan worked on one study in which he showed that people who were given a self-affirmation exercise were more likely to consider new information than people who had not. In other words, if you feel good about yourself, you’ll listen — and if you feel insecure or threatened, you won’t. This would also explain why demagogues benefit from keeping people agitated. The more threatened people feel, the less likely they are to listen to dissenting opinions, and the more easily controlled they are.
What galls me most about an article like this is that it gives what is to my mind an EXCELLENT explanation and even points toward a cure for the problem in one paragraph and then goes on to say how doomed and impossible it seems to fix the problem. Talk about cognitive dissonance!
Even within the article itself we see the damage low self-esteem and depression can do to thinking. The writer is obviously unhappy about the subject of the article, using irony to distance himself from the painful findings and then blanking out the hopeful data as soon as he expresses it! He's blanking out the truth here exactly the way he's describing others doing so. Pretty amazing, eh?
Genuine and accurate self-esteem, genuine self-love are crucial to making caring for and respecting others possible! Self-respect teaches us that people who do things differently from the way we do things may very well have it right FOR THEM.
This is precisely why fear-mongering persists on all sides of the political spectrum--because it's easier and because the folks in power are just as fearful and suffer as much from low self-esteem (aka: self-contempt) as everyone else. No one who doesn't hate himself becomes a suicide bomber. No one who doesn't hate himself lies to an entire country about the things that most affect all of us.
And this is a solution we can all get to work on this very day, this very moment. Stop hating our impulses. Stop hating our real feelings, starting with our own fear. Stop hating our insufficiencies and our mistakes. Maybe even stop hating on others for theirs--there's an idea!
Do any of you (and I'm speaking quite generally--if the shoe fits, etc.) really feel better about yourselves, really proud of yourselves when you apply some sophomoric scatological nickname to another stranger on this forum? Does name-calling give you peace of mind or gain you the respect of other self-respecting folk online? Or if you do get support for such behavior, isn't it really just a sad little circle jerk of one-up-manship and humiliation that ultimately backfires on you in the wee hours?
Cut the crap. Clean up your own act and maybe-just-maybe we'll start solving some of the problems you see in your world. 'Cause being shitty to the people you meet, no matter what the reason, ultimately only makes you feel more powerless to effect change. Your typical playground bully, ya think he likes himself or do ya think he hates himself? Use your noodle. You know treating other people like crap is wrong. WHY THE HELL CONTINUE TO DO IT then? Here's a thought: why not stop persisting in wrong action, just because it's what you've always done and be the change you're looking for?
(Again, not directing this at Magonsdaughter--this is my general plea to those here who know exactly who they are.)
HKCavalier
Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
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That's a good article MD, thanks for posting it. And, as usual, even better comments from HK.
I've been seen a fair number of these kinds of observations lately but something isn't quite right about the points they're making. They seem to be written with the assumption that if we can all just agree on what the facts are, we'll naturally reach the same conclusions.
It's good to recognize the denial and outright delusion that an inability to recognize facts often supports. But in point of "fact", differences of opinion, especially political opinion, hardly ever rely on facts. They're value-based, and as such depend on the goals of the people involved. Despite disputes over the veracity of whatever evidence one side my trot out in support of their opinion, it really comes down to a different desired outcome. And that has nothing to do with facts. There are no facts that prove that freedom is better than security, or vice versa. There are no facts that prove that capitalism is better than socialism, or that peace is better than war.
SergeantX
"It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah"
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Wow, good article.
I agree with HK about the one point of hope.
If there is a solution, who implements it? The government? Politically affiliated groups? Or would it just be in some form of free, publicly available resource?
I have a pet theory that the BBC keeps UK political opinion less partisan and wild than in the U.S... (not saying the BBC's perfect but it's a trusted, moderate voice, mandated to be neutral, and is accountable to the people)
It's not personal. It's just war.
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The fact that facts don't matter means that facts never did matter. That this is a surprise to anyone just demonstrates how naive people can be.
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Yanno, maybe that whole being treated as subhuman for eighteen straight years thing might have something to do with the whole self-contempt problem, mighten it ?
Just sayin.
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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Do you really think that the neocons were born in a vacuum. They are a direct result of the win at all cost Clinton democrats. In the end there can be only one.
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Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
Wow, good article.
I agree with HK about the one point of hope.
If there is a solution, who implements it? The government? Politically affiliated groups? Or would it just be in some form of free, publicly available resource?
I have a pet theory that the BBC keeps UK political opinion less partisan and wild than in the U.S... (not saying the BBC's perfect but it's a trusted, moderate voice, mandated to be neutral, and is accountable to the people)
It's not personal. It's just war.
I feel the same with the ABC here, who really have to implement impartiality in their coverage of politics, down the the same amount of airspace and type if questioning that the different sides all get.
And people in the US worry about 'government control'. Actually the government run news agencies are the least biased of any here. Some of the private ones just run with the blatant agenda of the powerful owners.
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