Fairfax, VA, USA. People too often believe news that confirms their beliefs and only read those sources — websites, cable news, newspapers, magazines, journals, blogs, letters to the editor — that conform to those beliefs.

They suspect any news or science that cast doubts on their beliefs as fabrications by non-believers.

Recognize anyone?


I am, of course, a columnist. My job description requires that I write interestingly enough to attract readers. If a column goes unread on the internet, who the hell cares? The universe is indifferent whether I am read or not. But I care and so I try to make each column interesting enough that readers return — even if the subsequent discussion on the blogs mostly consists of berating me for my ignorance and apostasy from the one true belief system, whatever that might be at the time.

Confirmation Bias is a type of selective thinking, the propensity to interpret challenging new information in such a way as to confirm what one already believes.

I am a Democrat, I read only Liberal blogs and Progressive newspapers that express the Truth as I know it. I am a Republican, I read only Tea Party blogs and the Conservative newspapers that express the truth as I know.

I am a Christian, I only read True Believer blogs and Sectarian newspapers that believe Jesus is Lord. I am a Muslim, I only read Muslimun blogs that make a proper declaration of Faith- and Mullah- approved newspapers that serve Allah.

I am an Atheist, I read the religious blogs only to post well-reasoned rants against a belief in a God. I send Op-Ed editorials to newspapers railing against the Religious Establishment.

I am a Gender Theorist, I only read other Gender Theorists and those professional papers accepted and published by the Journals of Gender Theory and Radical Feminism.

I am a Libertarian, I read only the Constitution of the United States and the papers of our Founding Fathers. I am a priest, minister, rabbi or mullah, I read only the Word of God and support only those laws that conform to my belief system which rightfully should be the law of the land.My starting point is the hard sciences in combination with the freedoms and rights contained in the U. S. Constitution and Capitalism, I often run afoul of those who disagree with me. How I do my job irritates a lot a people a lot of the time but I am aware that it’s a wide Wild West out there and there will always be someone who disagrees with something.

I am just happy that I am read and discussed, even when the majority of the discussion seems to focus on my recent genealogy and what should be done about it. Most all of us only read those writers who confirm our belief systems. That I am a read by a wide variety of viewpoints suggests I am doing something right.

Right Republicans generally only read writers who espouse a proper Republican Agenda, and then only the agenda that conforms to the reader’s Socially Conservative pre-conceptions. Left Democrats, obviously, only read those rights who confirm a proper Democratic Agenda, and then only the agenda that conforms to the reader’s Progressive pre-conceptions.

There are times when it seems that there are very few of us in the middle, moderate Democrats, moderate Republics, and Independents. If I would limit my news sources to the loud, continuous clash in the various media, I would think that the world divides into Progressive Democrats and Tea Party Republicans — and a handful of unbelievers simply who can’t make up their minds.

Are you Guilty? is the political question of the day. We must be true believers in the faith of the moment or we shall die. Or at least be voted out of office.

American Democracy is purposefully designed as a clunky, lurching mess of bureaucracy. It is designed as a brake on mob rule and anyone who attempts to assume powers of a dictator. The American political system by design does not work well except in rare instances (The Revolution and World War II are the only instances I can think of and there was a lot of political carping in the initial stages of both. Perhaps the Civil War.). Our Republic’s Democracy is constructed as a preventive antidote to the human tendency to blindly believe only the media and sources that confirm our preconceptions and our world view.

Minority political positions always have a voice. A majority cannot run roughshod over the rights of minorities. We are a nation of laws and have a Constitution that protects the rights of all those who are not currently in power. But you would never know it from listening to the media or reading the sectarian blogs.

Party politics do not have a stranglehold on Confirmation Bias. The Advocates of Gender Theory, whether they be Academics or transgender activists, invent their belief structure whole cloth and then quote each other as expert support for their fiction-based factoids.

Gender Theorists read only other Gender Theorists. Contradictory facts confirmed by hard sciences is ignored and denounced. True believers must read only the gospel that Gender Theory provides them. Actual Science is placed on the Forbidden List.

Transgender activists respond to presentation of replicable science fact with clamorous declarations that the science is wrong. They often do not read past the headline before they send off their angry missives. They appear to read this column only to have a topic of discussion on their cloistered, self-confirming blogs.

Confirmation Bias, thy name is Gender Theory.

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment