{"id":22773,"date":"2024-09-18T17:20:57","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T00:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=22773"},"modified":"2024-09-18T17:32:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T00:32:20","slug":"stories-are-not-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2024\/09\/18\/stories-are-not-evidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories Are Not Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>How the right &#8220;creates stories&#8221; to support their worldview (i.e. they&#8217;re all about motivated reasoning);<\/li>\n<li>Paul Krugman on Trump, tariffs, Stalin, and Lysenko;<\/li>\n<li>Items about DeSantis cheating and which party is the party of violence;<\/li>\n<li>Items about a brain fever brought on by voting for Democrats; Satanic interdimensional invasions; and how Republicans think anyone unlike them is suspect, perhaps subhuman.<\/li>\n<li> Trying to recall Bright Eyes, or Conor Oberst<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cloudfront.mediamatters.org\/styles\/crop_1620x600\/s3\/static\/D8Image\/2024\/09\/16\/harris-trump-debate.png?itok=XrX133dn\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Media Matters, Matt Gertz, 16 Sep 2024<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/fox-business\/maga-runs-wild-random-posters-abc-whistleblower-claims\">MAGA runs wild with random poster\u2019s \u201cABC whistleblower\u201d claims<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;How the right works to &#8220;create stories'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A wildly flimsy internet rumor launched by a random pro-Trump X poster about an \u201cABC whistleblower\u201d who purportedly claims that the network rigged the September 10 presidential debate went viral in MAGA spaces over the last several days, with Donald Trump and his allies floating congressional investigations and potential regulatory retribution against ABC News in response.<\/p>\n<p>The right-wing pundits and Republican politicians pushing the story don\u2019t actually know who the \u201cABC whistleblower\u201d is, if their claims are credible, or even if the person actually exists \u2014 but the purported document supposedly supports their preferred narrative that ABC News\u2019 moderators were biased, so they\u2019re running with it.<\/p>\n<p>The saga, while laughable, shows the right&#8217;s ongoing tendency to embrace and elevate anything that confirms their worldview.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(This is called <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Motivated_reasoning\">motivated reasoning<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/09\/15\/politics\/vance-immigrants-pets-springfield-ohio-cnntv\/index.html\">laid out that strategy<\/a> in a Sunday interview on CNN, admitting that he pushed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/jd-vance\/right-wing-media-are-celebrating-jd-vance-his-racist-lie-haitian-immigrants-are-widely\">debunked, racist, and demagogic claim<\/a> about Haitian immigrants eating pets because he wants to \u201ccreate stories\u201d that drive news coverage of immigration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The articles goes on about that ABC whistleblower claims. And ends:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In the past, Bartiromo\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediamatters.org\/fox-business\/maria-bartiromos-wild-and-kind-racist-election-conspiracy-theory-collapses-immediately#paragraph--narrative-item--3464732\">willingness to run<\/a> with extraordinary but evidence-free claims that happened to bolster her preexisting views helped secure a massive defamation settlement from her employer.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently that wasn\u2019t enough to change her approach. But her behavior, while deplorable, is not anomalous \u2014 this total rejection of evidentiary standards in order to \u201ccreate stories\u201d is a hallmark of the conspiratorial right, from lies about election fraud to Haitians eating pets.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Last sentence: &#8220;a hallmark of the conspiratorial right.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/09\/19\/opinion\/17krugman-newsletter-image\/17krugman-newsletter-image-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paul Krugman, NY Times, 17 Sep 2024<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/17\/opinion\/trump-tariffs-economy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Lk4.dSCX.BfoASdBSOgbq&amp;smid=url-share\">Trumpism, Stalinism and the Tariff Debate<\/a> [gift link]<\/p>\n<p>Key issue: how is it one political party pursues policies that defy all the evidence?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Do tariffs \u2014 taxes on imports \u2014 raise prices for U.S. consumers? There\u2019s really no debate on the subject.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">I don\u2019t mean that everyone agrees. Rather, there are two distinct groups that aren\u2019t talking to each other, each of which is more or less unified in its views. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/justinwolfers\/status\/1834661783589523769?s=51&amp;t=GgXK6f1PTk_sz1v7AUgMGQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Almost all economists<\/a> agree that taxes on imports are, in fact, passed on to consumers. Why? Because that\u2019s what <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/articles?id=10.1257\/jep.33.4.187\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the evidence says<\/a>, and it\u2019s very hard to come up with an alternative story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the other hand, Trump loyalists \u2014 which these days means almost the entire Republican Party \u2014 insist as a group that foreigners, not American consumers, pay taxes on imports. Why? Because Donald Trump says so. And they don\u2019t even try to engage with economists who disagree.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As I see it, the latter position is the more interesting of the two, not because it has a shred of validity \u2014 it doesn\u2019t \u2014 but precisely because it doesn\u2019t. How did we get to a state in which a whole political party supports a claim that experts unanimously reject? As I see it, the best way to understand what\u2019s going on is to look at other countries\u2019 histories \u2014 specifically the strange history of Lysenkoism in Joseph Stalin\u2019s Russia.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And, again with that famous Upton Sinclair quote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[A]s I see it, is that it\u2019s easy to understand why zombie ideas like climate change denial and tax-cut mysticism persist: They serve wealthy interest groups. Fossil fuel companies keep climate skepticism shambling along because any attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would hurt their profits. Billionaires support think tanks and politicians who claim that great things will happen if we cut the taxes that billionaires pay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/21810-it-is-difficult-to-get-a-man-to-understand-something\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Upton Sinclair<\/a> said, \u201cIt is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Lysenko angle is famous in the history of science: he was a Russian scientist who claimed to have debunked traditional genetics in favor of &#8220;inheritance of acquired characteristics,&#8221; an idea that appealed to Stalin. So Stalin put his ideas into practice, &#8220;despite leading to multiple agricultural disasters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dissenters were condemned as Western agents, and in some cases died in prison camps.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And now Trump is threatening the same with those who challenges his tariff policies.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/09\/18\/opinion\/18grose-newsletter-image\/18grose-newsletter-image-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>NY Times, Jessica Grose<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/18\/opinion\/desantis-amendment-4-abortion.html\">When a Republican Governor Couldn\u2019t Win on Abortion, He Tried to Cheat<\/a>. Cheating? Imagine! This is about DeSantis trying to keep people in Florida from voting about abortion. Those &#8216;election police&#8217;&#8230;<\/li>\n<li><strong>MSNBC:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/rachel-maddow-show\/maddowblog\/team-trump-picks-wrong-fight-party-violence-rcna171454\">Team Trump picks the wrong fight over \u2018the party of violence\u2019<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Does Donald Trump\u2019s Republican campaign really want to have a debate over which party deserves to be seen as the &#8216;party of violence?'&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The crazies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>JMG:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2024\/09\/maga-pastor-i-prayed-away-a-mans-near-fatal-brain-fever-brought-on-by-having-voted-for-democrats\/\">MAGA Pastor: I Prayed Away A Man\u2019s Near-Fatal Brain Fever Brought On Him By Having Voted For Democrats<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>JMG:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2024\/09\/jones-warns-of-satanic-interdimensional-invasion\/\">[Alex] Jones Warns Of \u201cSatanic Interdimensional Invasion\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Washington Post, Ruth Marcus<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2024\/09\/18\/huckaby-sanders-kamala-harris-trump-jdvance\/\">Opinion | Sarah Sanders\u2019s crude swipes at Kamala Harris notch a new low for GOP<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The Arkansas governor stumbles over her humility while warming up a crowd for Donald Trump.&#8221; My comment: Another example, following JD Vance, of how anyone who&#8217;s not just like them is suspect, perhaps subhuman. Also, they refuse to pronounce her name correctly. That&#8217;s plain, rank, disrespect. Which is the opposite of &#8216;woke&#8217;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>I saw a row of CDs by Bright Eyes, and Conor Oberst, down in the CD rack in my garage, and picked them up. Haven&#8217;t listened to them in 20 years. Why did I buy so many? I seem to remember there was some particularly catchy Conor Oberst song that caused me to buy his album, or his Bright Eyes album, but now, sampling these various CDs, I can&#8217;t find it. There are some nice songs, e.g. &#8220;First Day of My Life,&#8221; but there&#8217;s an itch in my memory for some other song sung by Conor Oberst, with his charmingly shaky voice.<\/p>\n<p>I just played this entire album, and it&#8217;s quite nice. But that song I think I remember isn&#8217;t there.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qzwoZsD3MUs?list=OLAK5uy_ml5WRfzIZxweSrDFkuTelKeW-pZv3GSvA\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Conor_Oberst\">Conor Oberst<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bright_Eyes_(band)\">Bright Eyes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How the right &#8220;creates stories&#8221; to support their worldview (i.e. they&#8217;re all about motivated reasoning); Paul Krugman on Trump, tariffs, Stalin, and Lysenko; Items about DeSantis cheating and which party is the party of violence; Items about a brain fever &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2024\/09\/18\/stories-are-not-evidence\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,18,17,42,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-lunacy","category-music","category-narrative","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22773"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22779,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22773\/revisions\/22779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}