Re: Accepting Unwelcome Truths (was Noam Chomsky)

From: Jeff Davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Dec 12 2002 - 23:00:35 MST


Lee,

Two and two is four. The holocaust either did or did
not happen. There is truth. All the sophistry in the
world can't change that. Get over it.

You're wrong, and now you trying to hide from it. Get
over that, too.

Solve your own problems. I've helped you enough.
Stop wasting my time.

In my annoyance, I told John Clark to "shut the fuck
up". I was wrong. I apologize. Now get over that as
well.

Jeff Davis

--- Lee Corbin <lcorbin@tsoft.com> wrote:
> Jeff Davis writes
>
> > Extropes,
> >
> > The following demonstrates why it is so difficult
> to
> > have a rational discussion of these sorts of
> things on
> > this, or for that matter any, list.
>
> So far as I have ever been able to tell, "rational"
> is to you an adjective describing people who
> subscribe
> to your political ideology or who accede at once to
> the truth as you present it. Those who cannot see
> this
> truth, well, you have other words for them. People
> who
> present inaccurate renditions of events are told to
> "shut
> the fuck up". It would be libelous of all leftists
> to
> suppose that this is their general behavior---but
> sometimes I have to wonder if there isn't a slight
> correlation.
>
> > The underlying knowledge base--the supposed truths
> about
> > the world--are completely different from one
> person to
> > another.
>
> Yes, insofar as ideological "truths", e.g., whether
> the
> U.S. invaded Vietnam or was invited into south
> Vietnam.
>
> > To me this means that one person's truth is
> corrupted, i.e. it
> > is not truth at all, while another's is the real
> thing.
>
> You knew that that wasn't right as you were writing
> it.
> First, both parties may turn out to be deeply in
> error,
> and second, good epistemology dictates that we
> always
> hold the truth as conjectural, not *certain*.
>
> Another person's *may* be the real thing, but only
> provisionally.
>
> > (To be a bit more generous, I might say everyone
> has some
> > degree of error in their set of facts.) Adding to
> the
> > problem--perhaps the decisive element--is the
> pre-programmed
> > resistance to modifying one's belief set, the
> human tendency to
> > refuse the truth in favor of what they already
> believe.
>
> Exactly so.
>
> > Ron h absorbed his world view in the era of
> McCarthyism, and
> > never looked back.
>
> and you have systematically deposited layer after
> layer
> of filtered beliefs yourself decade after decade. I
> do
> understand and appreciate that you have changed your
> mind on some things over the years, but it would be
> pretty amazing if a deep psychological study
> revealed
> you to be more open to unwelcome revelation than
> other
> members of this list.
>
> Lee
>

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