Wednesday, September 02, 2015

"The news you hear is biased, incomplete, or out of context – by design – at least until history sorts it all out. Oh, and historians disagree."

Identifying the Smart Voters | Scott Adams Blog: "Here are just a few of the illusions that plague those of you clinging to the fantasy of human intelligence: 
1. If you are trying to match a president with a job description, how can you do that without knowing what the future holds? Do we need a war president or a business-oriented deal-maker? Raise your hand if you predicted 9/11. Raise your hand if you knew oil would become cheap. And so on. 
2. Candidates lie. A lot. 
 3. The news you hear is biased, incomplete, or out of context – by design –  at least until history sorts it all out. Oh, and historians disagree. 
4. Many of the big issues are too complicated for even the professionals to understand, much less the voters.
5. Experts disagree. About everything. 
6. We believe we were right when we predicted the performance of past presidents, but only because we see what we want to see. Republicans see Obama as an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions. (Told you!) Democrats see an improved economy and more people with health insurance. (Nailed it!)  Conservatives see Reagan as the greatest of our presidents. (Yay!) Liberals see him as a guy with lucky timing and a touch of Alzheimers. (Burn!) This illusion makes each of us believe we will be good at picking the next president since we got it right the last time."


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