fromderinside
Mazzie Daius
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2008
- Messages
- 15,945
- Basic Beliefs
- optimist
Loren is a rightist (of the libertarian variety).
Thus, if you present him with evidence from a peer-reviewed scientific study, he will simply dismiss it with the "lies, damn lies, and statistics" argument. The "lies, damn lies, and statistics" argument proves that to a rightist, anecdotal evidence is the only kind of evidence that is valid, but only if it supports a conclusion that he likes.
Don't blame Loren for this. He has simply spent too much time consuming right wing media.
I have found that tendency among those on each side of the political spectrum. Many people simply refuse to accept facts that run counter to what they want to believe. It does not matter how well those facts are documented. It does not matter what they want to believe.
Those on the right often refuse to accept credible evidence that by important criteria the U.S. economy has tended to perform better under Democrat leadership. Those on the left often refuse to accept credible evidence that members of different races tend to perform and behave differently. If they do acknowledge different racial performance and behavior patterns they attribute the differences to environment, even though the differences are fairly consistent historically and geographically.
There's another way to look at the issue. Presume facts are facts until one can falsify them. If one doesn't try to falsify presented items as facts why is one even looking at them? One already knows in one's heart one is right.