(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Half of Americans believe the blatantly false propaganda about "judicial activism".

This should not surprise anyone, considering that half of Americans believe in ghosts, 70% think creationism is science and should be taught in schools, a third think Bush is doing a good job and almost half think he actually got elected in 2000 and 2004.

Comments

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Unreproducibility in a laboratory doesn't logically imply non-existence of the phenomena. There are things that manifestly do exist, such as social pressures, which are not reproducible in a laboratory; that's why things like sociology are more inductive than deductive, but good inductive arguments still justify experiential beliefs.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

I hate to rain on your parade, but sociology, when done by someone who isn't looking to get on TV, is all about using large samples and applying statistics to isolate and predict trends. It is predictive, and it can be measured.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

It still isn't reproducible in a lab.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Sure it is, but we're not willing to do that to entire societies.

[jerril]

Only because we don't have labs big enough. You can't take something like language comprehension and reproduce it using a handful of brain cells either.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

In this case, society *is* our lab, and you're being myopic.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not going to discount my otherwise inexplicable experiences, which were verified by other people, after the fact, with nobody talking about the phenomena beforehand; it's either one thing, or precognition of being told about it. Either explanation introduces paranormality. "Mass hallucenation" is a bullshit explanation, especially when nobody was talking about what to expect beforehand.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

But you talked about it afterward, which completely ruins your value as a witness.

You don't think your memory is reliable in the face of that, do you?

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

I see no reason to think it isn't.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

When 10 people witness a murder, all 10 will have a different memory of the event -- and none will match what actually happened.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

... and when those 10 people discuss the event afterward, their accounts *will* match up and they'll all believe the one they collectively decided on - and they'll absolutely, totally, surely believe that they really remember it.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Logically, if you can't trust an experience if you've been preconditioned to expect it and if you can't trust your memory if you talk about it with other people, then we can't trust anything.
What's the use in that?

[anivair.livejournal.com]

Social pressure IS reproduceably in a lab. There was a study done to simulate zani germany conditions that resulted in people electrocuting made up people to death despite their screams. People killed themselves as the result of this experiment.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Damn you, Joe. Damn you. };-]

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

And then there's the Stanford Prison Experiment. (http://www.prisonexp.org/)

[leighdb.livejournal.com]

Dude, I fucking hate polls like that. It shows nothing useful. If I had been asked those questions, I would have to ask in return, how do you expect me to make a blanket judgment about ALL judges in the entire freaking country?

Either they're all ignoring the "wishes of the voters", whatever the fuck that means, since last I checked the way I vote is pretty different from how Joe Crazyhat over there votes, or they're all not ignoring them? What kind of bullshit choice is that?

Gah.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that is bullshit.

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

a poll shows that 85% of survey creators believe their polls are designed to have a certain desired outcome, based on their political motivations. a poll also shows that 99% of the republican party are using fear tactics on religious conservatives, who would normally be quiet happy people (ie. "John Kerry would ban the bible!")

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

random thoughts - the pot calling the kettle black, balance of powers, the majority is not right any more than the minority, just because you agree with me doesn't mean you're right, mob rule is not a basis for civilized society, etc.

And it's not just a sorry state of civic education, it's a sorry state of education - because we aren't out there funding and supporting and promoting education as a good thing. Vouchers and home schooling may raise reading test scores but what good is that if the only thing you're allowed to read or believe is the one edition of the one version of the bible that you and your cousins accept?