Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Snopes & Relativity

The other day I was labelled a Snopes Defender by someone more Conservative than myself. They believe that Snopes has a strong liberal bias. My reply was that at least they give a person links and data that allow the reader to verify or reject the Snopes opinion. Which is much more than we get from the "Please Forward" propaganda "pot stirring" emails that the Left and Right like to generate. Then later I added this thought.

"If you're in the far right of a theater (ie RR),

everyone else looks like they are to the left..."

Since then I have been fascinated by this concept, and thinking about how to display it simply and clearly. Below is my first draft. Some questions it raises for me are:
  • Is there anyway for the Left Lefts, Left Moderates and Left Rights to ever truly see the Right side's TRUTH?
  • Will the Left always say the screen is only GREEN and the Right is intentionally lying?
  • Is there anyway for the Right Rights, Right Moderates and Right Lefts to ever truly see the Left side's TRUTH?
  • Will the Right always say the screen is only RED and that the Left is intentionally lying?
  • Is a Moderate Moderate actually a Left/Liberal to a Right Moderate, and a Right/Conservative to a Left Moderate?
  • etc, etc, etc
It is amazing we stay at peace and get anything done given how biased the perspective is of the Far Right and Far Left... Any thoughts?

By the way... I see myself as a Moderate Right... Meaning I see and relate better to the RED than the GREEN. However I acknowledge that the Green is really there and study both sides before making decisions or taking action.

Finally, I put Snopes in the Moderate Left seat. Like all web content, don't treat their text as the Gospel. It was written by humans who have biases... As shown below.

If you are not familiar with Snopes or FactCheck... They are groups that research things and then post an opinion. OR They are Leftist propaganda machines... Check them out and form your own opinions like the smart people you are. Have a great weekend!!!
FactCheck
Snopes

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must be special. I'm red-green colorblind. No, really. I've also found that, politically, it doesn't make any difference. I can see all sides of the thrust stage that you present, and can easily identify the bad actors on it. They're all to the left.

And if truth/reality doesn't look the same to everybody, it isn't the truth or the reality. I would argue, in fact, that the only way the left sees ANYTHING is by ignoring truth and avoiding reality. For example, the notion that government can spend your money more wisely, /on your behalf/, than you can simply isn't true, and completely overlooks the reality of the inevitable failure of that socialist philosophy.

I say truth is where you find it, and let the chips fall where they may.

J. Ewing

John said...

I do not think people can truly see the real picture when they are polarized to one side. Their blind spots are too many, their reticular activating system only allows in stimulus what resonates with them, and then there is that darn ego/pride that makes it hard for one to consider they could truly be wrong. A person really needs work hard and be brave to find something that they are not looking for and to admit they are fallible.

3 of my favorite quotes on the topic:
"People do not see the world as it is; they see it as they are – or as they have been conditioned to be." (Covey)

"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds." (Laing)

"The good thing about Reality. It comes whether you deny it or not. So actively search for it and be prepared." (G2A)

Anonymous said...

Well, one of the things leftists do is to look at certain facts selectively and draw conclusions from those facts that are completely at odds with reality. I firmly believe they see these other facts, but manage to ignore them.

Right wing fanatics like me look at what we believe to be true, and then find those facts which support that view. This will include some of the facts that the leftists see, but in combination with others actually prove the right's "truth."

The problem is that you cannot find truth until you first admit that there is objective truth somewhere, and the left refuses to do that. "Some look at the world the way it is and ask why; others look at the world the way it could be and ask why not?" -JFK

The problem is that leftists look at the world the way they think it ought to be and say "we done good." They don't see reality, but rather the way they think reality ought to be. They deny human nature, for example, assuming they can increase taxes on something and people will go merrily along as before rather than changing their behavior to avoid the tax penalty.

J. Ewing

John said...

It must be fate. I was taking a break today and thumbing through a quote book... These 2 JFK quotes resonated with me regarding this topic.

"Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others." John F. Kennedy

"Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." John F. Kennedy

Now my opinion is that a person in seat LL would make the exact opposite statement regarding the folks in seat RR as J has made about them.

Except they would say that the RR's deny human nature and history. In that when the Rich don't help take care of the Poor, and make sure they maintain hope. The Poor stage a revolution and take the Rich citizen's possessions and maybe their life.

Now do I have no left/liberal readers??? What do you think, are you guilty as charged by J, or are the Rightees morphing reality and ignoring facts?

Or can each side not get past their blind spots?

Can a middle class professional college graduate with good parents ever see the same colors in the world as a poor drop out with dead beat parents?

Can a Type A Technical Business Over Achiever ever see the same colors in the world as a compassionate caregiver type individual?

Are they lying when they say they see different colors? Or are they both just somewhat color blind?