Confirmation bias enables people to ignore things contrary to their ideology in their quest for confirmation of their strongly held beliefs. But even when they use text to justify their ideology, they can still manage to ignore parts of the same text if it detracts from their conviction. Using the Koran Therefore, when you meet the unbelievers, smite at their necks.” This is what ISIS supposedly uses to justify their beheadings, and their opponents use to condemn Islam. But the verse continues: “At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind the captives firmly. Therefore is the time for either generosity or ransom.” It was only about beheadings if you misread or chopped off text. Paramilitaries on our own soil read ... the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed as absolute. They and others, including the Supreme Court, at least since 2008, now find its introduction may have announced a purpose but was nevertheless legally unrestrictive: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State... Of course those on other side of the gun issue put more weight there than the emphatic verb that concludes the amendment. Similarly in a long paragraph, his supporters felt built to the Presidents conclusion, the repeated use of the identifier somebody for clarification. Still Obamas opponents vehemently argued that the meaning was entirely contained in the penultimate sentence. You will remember how much of the Presidential campaign was bases upon prejudicial reading of the full paragraph below. There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me—because they want to give something back. They know they didnt—look, if youve been successful, you didnt get there on your own... If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If youve got a business—you didnt build that. Somebody else made that happen. This is whats known as confirmation bias abetted by a propagandistic media that engages in quote-mining. It also works when media just make stuff up and their adherents eat it up. At least 7 Friends posted an ignorant quote by Sara Palin, or so they thought. Their Friends lit into the political celebrity for her stupidity. I pointed out that the Link was National Report, a fake news site and unfunny. (The Onion is satire and funny.) A few knew that too, but no one apologized for their vitriol, much less admitted their mistake. Many doubled down, saying it did not matter because Palin was so imbecilic, people could believe anything of her. Not one of the originators took down their fraudulent update. So if you hate a person or idea enough, you can hate them for saying something they never said.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:57:26 +0000
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