Quote:
Originally Posted by Cube Inmate
I hate to argue with you, since you're nearly always right, but I think you've failed to make an important distinction between "truth" and "fact." As Indiana Jones once said, if you're looking for "truth" there's a philosophy class just down the hall. If you're looking for fact, then you can only look for irrefutable, unambiguous data.
One needs to be able to draw the distinction between fact and fiction...facts and opinion...and then be prepared to use facts to draw his own opinions. In the vast majority of news media today (and since the beginning of print), facts are usually interwoven with opinions and "truths" that the writers or editors hold to be self-evident. The publishers have every right to do that. If I'm the publisher of a website, I reserve the right to censor anything that's not factual. If I simultaneously decide to allow certain people's interpretation of "truth" but censor others' opinions, then I suppose I've crossed the line from being a repository of "fact" to one of opinion.
I challenge anyone to come up with a website that's entirely factual in nature. Everything has opinion woven in. It's up to the user to determine what's what...but it's a difficult distinction. Critical thinking is an uncommon skill. I don't think that's anything new...it's just becoming more and more apparent now that everyone with a critical thinking deficit is able to have their opinions and beliefs published on the web.
But I ramble...
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I do not think we are disagreeing.
A normal human being will seek out the warm blanket of facts that reinforce what they already believe . . . . and the internet is one rather fantastic place to do that. Its called confirmation Bias.
Given the wide availability of virtually every fact and hordes of opinions analyzing and giving meaning to those facts, mixed in with normal human nature to seek out facts and opinions that reinforce our biases, we should probably not be surprised at the rampant partisanship we see these days.
I would suggest a "critical thinking deficit" is actually a pretty normal condition. No one is without bias.
As to the treatment of "fact" versus "truth," two people with varying pre-opinions about something can view the same facts and come to different conclusions as to meaning. A famous study is here:
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~jpiliavi/965/hwang.pdf
I put a glass of water in front of you. Is the glass half full or is it half empty? A simple question about a simple, visual fact. Yet we could easily disagree on the answer.
Humanity is pretty fun.
Cowperson