Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Or we could write it like this:

"Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation 

supported by less than half of Americans, 

poll reveals - live" 


See how easy it is to spin a story?  Just a little hint for you up and coming copy editors. 

A brief observation: I'm actually shocked that fewer than half support the confirmation.  At best the press coverage has been neutral, in most cases it has been hagiographical.  I've seen Beatles blogs by Beatles fans that were less worshipful than how the press covered her and her nomination. 

Oh, and did anyone catch if some journalist somewhere mentioned that she was the first  black woman appointed to the SCOTUS?  

BTW, I missed my chance. I should have tracked down Jeff Bezos and bet him his fortune that any failure to 100% support Judge Jackson and give her a pass would be labeled racism and/or sexism.  Had I thought to do that, I'd be the richest guy in the world.  Missed opportunities I guess. 

Bonus points to those on the left who have not just played the Race Card, but have also tried to suggest her hearings were among the most grueling and horrific of any SCOTUS nominee ever.  You've got to love our country's desire to make Medieval peasants look sane and balanced by comparison. 

7 comments:

  1. A bigger question is, "Who cares?" Suppose the poll were about whether hot dish water kills germs. Based on conversations I have had, a majority of Americans would probably say it does. Sorry -- anything you can put your hands in is quite comfortable to most germs. The heat helps you to remove gunk stuck to the dishes, but does not kill germs.

    I just throw that out there as an example. We don't create reality from our own opinions, either individually collectively. Asking what is true is very different from asking what is widely believed. Even worse is the implication that we should change our opinions to fit in with the alleged crowd.

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    1. There are polls that indicate that upwards of 70% of Americans want more restrictions on abortions and not the free for all liberals want you to believe that most Americans support abortion on demand. The opposite is true and what happens? Nothing at all. It's still abortion on demand. The polls work in one way only. Is there any other way for them to work? Nope.

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    2. Yes, and there are also polls that show that a comfortable majority reject the idea of banning all abortions altogether. So much the worse for the comfortable majority! "Vox Populi, Vox Dei!" is truly one of the stupidest lines ever written.

      Of course it can be useful to know what most people think as a way of forming a hypothesis. If nearly everyone thinks the foul vapors rising from swamps and sewage cause malaria ("bad air"), it's a good idea to avoid those places -- but popular or even expert opinion is not necessarily the truth, it's just one indicator (of questionable value) for use if there is no other information available. In the case of abortion, there is more information available, including, but not limited to, the sense that God gave geese.

      In the case of a political confirmation, you might say that even though the poll numbers are not reliable in saying whether she SHOULD be confirmed, in a democracy they are an indication of whether or not she WILL be confirmed. If this were a pure democracy, that might be true, but this is a REPRESENTATIVE democracy in the thrall of partisan politics. Like it or not, senators are more likely to align with their parties' opinions than with their electors' opinions, knowing that by the time the election comes around voters are likely to be much more concerned with other issues, but that party bosses will remember who defied them.

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    3. I don't put much in most polls. I just had to chuckle that the headline needed to pull the old one-two. I mean, it's easy for pollsters to stack the deck and get the results they want. How bad was it that they couldn't get a majority supporting her? With the praise and adoration she was given, I would have expected about 70% support. But they didn't get it, and had to do the 'half empty/half full' switch.

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    4. Fair enough. In that context, it's worth noting that "nearly x% of Americans believe y" is most often used when y is something stupid. "Nearly 50% of Americans believe Thomas Jefferson was a general." "Nearly 10% of Americans believe the earth is flat." "Nearly 70% of Americans believe the US military uses technology from crashed UFO's."

      You're more likely to hear, "Nearly 20% of Americans think that smoking is not a health risk," than, "Nearly 80% of Americans think that smoking is a health risk."

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  2. You know Dave I don't know why my comments are duplicated like this lol.

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    1. Heh. I've noticed that. At first I thought you were being emphatic. It's no big deal, just a second chance to take it in. :)

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