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Tag Archives: facts
Fact-checking the second volume of the U.S. National Climate Assessment
Fact-checking the second volume of the U.S. National Climate Assessment This recently-issued study (the “Assessment”) was seized on by the media as proof of the massive damage the US will suffer if nothing is done about climate change. The Assessment’s conclusions are based largely on speculative model projections that aren’t amenable to checking, but it […]
Truth Is What We Hide, Self-Serving Cover Stories Are What We Sell
Truth Is What We Hide, Self-Serving Cover Stories Are What We Sell The fact that lies and cover stories are now the official norm only makes us love our servitude with greater devotion. We can summarize the current era in one sentence: truth is what we hide, self-serving cover stories are what we sell. Jean-Claude […]
The Psychology of Systemic Consensus
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SYSTEMIC CONSENSUS We are all too familiar with established views rejecting change. It has nothing to do with the facts. Officialdom’s mind is often firmly closed to all reason on the big issues. To appreciate why we must understand the crowd psychology behind the systemic consensus. It is the distant engine that […]
The problem with models…is getting stuck on just one
The problem with models…is getting stuck on just one Alfred Korzybski, the father of general semantics, first uttered what must now seem like a well-worn phrase: “The map is not the territory.” And yet, I don’t think this view has yet been well-incorporated into human culture. In a time when social media outlets are trying […]
The Degrading Facts of a Fake Money Hole in the Head
The Degrading Facts of a Fake Money Hole in the Head Squishy Fact Finding Mission Today we begin with the facts. But not just the facts; the facts of the facts. We want to better understand just what it is that is provoking today’s ludicrous world. To clarify, we are not after the cold hard […]
American Totalitarianism and the Culture of Fake News
American Totalitarianism and the Culture of Fake News American citizens have a problem telling the difference between facts and opinion. That’s the finding of a recent survey carried out by the respected Pew organization. It was found that only a quarter of the people polled were able to correctly distinguish between a factual statement and […]
Jerry Brown: 3 Billion Will Die from Global Warming
Jerry Brown: 3 Billion Will Die from Global Warming On April 17, 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown delivered a speech at the National Press Club in Washington DC. A day later the headline that forms the title of this post appeared in Google News. I’ve been unable to find out exactly how many views Google […]
Fake news, algorithmic sentinels, and facts from the future
Fake news, algorithmic sentinels, and facts from the future The suggestion that social media outlets need to police so-called “fake news” rings true on its face. Who wants to read news coverage known to be false? But what rates as “fake news” will be harder to define than we think. And, putting algorithms in charge […]
More Lies from the Presstitutes
More Lies from the Presstitutes The shameless liars that comprise the US media intentionally exaggerated the marchers against “gun violance” by four times the acutal number. Why? Why are the media presstitutes involved in advocacy of agendas and not in reporting factual news? Recent polls show that a majority of Americans believe that gun ownership […]
The Problem with Conspiracy Theories
The Problem with Conspiracy Theories People today spend a lot of time talking about conspiracy theories. These theories often do harm because they divert attention away from the facts and thereby allow real crimes and other harmful effects to continue. Such conspiracy theories can be spotted based on three basic characteristics. They lack […]
Living With Truth Decay
Living With Truth Decay “Once a policy has been adopted and implemented, all subsequent activity becomes an effort to justify it” — Barbara Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam (1984. p. 245). In the 20th-century but still fun party game called Telephone, people sit in a circle and someone whispers a phrase […]
Can We Ascertain the Facts of Reality in Economics by Means of Mathematics?
CAN WE ASCERTAIN THE FACTS OF REALITY IN ECONOMICS BY MEANS OF MATHEMATICS? It is generally held that by means of statistical and mathematical methods one can organize historical data into a useful body of information, which in turn can serve as the basis for the assessments of the state of the economy. It is […]
The Battle for Truth
2018 Edelman Trust Barometer The Battle for Truth As we begin 2018, we find the world in a new phase in the loss of trust: the unwillingness to believe information, even from those closest to us. The loss of confidence in information channels and sources is the fourth wave of the trust tsunami. The moorings of […]
The 10 Habits of Logical People
The 10 Habits of Logical People The authentically logical person keeps his logic rooted in truth and never lets it devolve into mere verbal trickery. Becoming a logical person is not just a matter of memorizing and applying formulas, or learning how to tell the difference between a valid and an invalid syllogism. Rather, it […]
Facebook Will Trust Its Untrustworthy Users to Rank the Trustworthiness of News
Photo: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images FACEBOOK WILL TRUST ITS UNTRUSTWORTHY USERS TO RANK THE TRUSTWORTHINESS OF NEWS FACEBOOK USERS, BY and large, are not very good at differentiating between what’s fact and what’s false. Many users will eagerly share both reliable news and the fake stuff without any hesitation. It happens because users either want the falsehoods […]
