Principles of Applied Epistemology (APPLIED EPISTEMOLOGY)

[Mick Harper]

We are always going on about 'academese' because it is the chief way universities obscure, from themselves as much as others, how absolutely worthless most of their output is. Here is a wondrous account by someone who went the whole ten years, came out the other side, learned her lesson and still has no idea what she has actually witnessed at first hand. https://medium.com/melissa-miles-mccarter/what-i-didnt-learn-about-writing-from-grad-school-4dd1c645c06b

Doubtless she is, even now, scrimping to the bone to make sure her own children do likewise.

[Mick Harper]

We once ran a competition that offered a prize to anyone who could name a conspiracy theory that turned out to be true. We got a few offers from conspiracy nuts who pointed out that the conspiracy theory they believed in was true, but otherwise no takers. This is important in a hundred-white-sheep kind of way. So I was taken by this headline

[Grant]

It’s not a conspiracy theory because it’s already an indisputable fact that both political parties in the US cheat during elections. The Republicans withdraw the vote from people with even minor criminal records (ie 50% of black people) and the Democrats get out their vote by using “community leaders” to hoover up minority voters. This has gone on for decades and the only question is did the Democrats push it this year way beyond the usual and accepted cheating?

My answer to that is why wouldn’t they? They had convinced themselves that Trump was the anti-Christ. Anything was acceptable, and the introduction of mass mail voting made it easy. They would have been betraying their ideals if they hadn’t cheated.

[Mick Harper]

As you say, this is just politics. Your conspiracy theorist roots are only betrayed in your second paragraph when you start talking about 'they' who have the power to signal to one another that this time it's different, it's D (for Donald) Day, and we'll have to arrange for a global pandemic so we can introduce mass mail voting and then ... well, that bit really is secret but since I'm not a Trump supporter but a dispassionate observer of events you can take my word for it.

I'll tell you about how they arranged for hundreds of opinion polls to be consistent with a Biden win and not a Trump win later. If they let me live that long.

[Wile E. Coyote]

I do like Sydney Powell's defence to the defamation law suit by Dominion Voting Systems, and Smartmatic, that they were part of a conspiracy to defraud Trump of the election. Sydney's novel defence is that “no reasonable person would” believe that her comments “were truly statements of fact.”......

[Ishmael]

[Ishmael]

[Mick Harper]

So you are inclining to 'it's just politics' rather than 'it must be a giant conspiracy'. As it says in the Good Book "A late repenter is a great repenter".

[Ishmael]

Peter Navarro released a report on precisely how the election was stolen and that report doesn't even mention voting machines.

Was there malfeasance with the voting machines? Almost certainly. But that isn't necessary to account for what happened.

As for Powell, she is making the case that assertions before a court of law are akin to hypotheses that are meant to be tested within the courtroom. She argues, as a legal matter, that lawyers must have the right to advance such theories in defence of their clients in pursuit of the finding of fact.

Does she believe her hypothesis? Yes. Is it nevertheless a hypothesis. Yes.

Really. It's not hard. But when you enjoy sopping up propaganda from Anderson Cooper, what can be done? In the end, you are an elite. You will always prefer the opinions and judgments of the elite. Who am I to correct you? I'm a nobody. A nothing. What I have to say is----as you write---of no value at all.

[Mick Harper]

[Ishmael]

Since this thread is ostensibly about Applied Epistemology (though it has most certainly been hijacked) allow me to address this matter in those terms.

There are many principles I might invoke to nudge skeptics toward my position. Invocation of most of these principles, however, would require at least some knowledge of the opposing case, which it is evident you lack on the whole. But there is one point I can make that might reach you as it requires only knowledge of the material daily fed to you by the likes of Anderson Cooper.

The case made by CNN is this belief that the election was stolen is not merely incorrect. The case they make is that this belief is prima face ridiculous; a belief with less credibility (pace the US Navy) than belief in alien spaceships visiting planet Earth.

In every media outlet of any significance, all persons claiming the election to have been rigged are made objects of unending ridicule. None are permitted to present their case directly to viewers. The excuse given is that the network cannot, in good concience, allow itself to be a platform for assertions so nonsensical. There is more than a twinge of moralizing in this. The signal to viewers being that consideration of such perspectives is both crazy and immoral.

But ask yourself this question.

Is it really likely that 90% of Republican voters and 20% of Democrat voters would subscribe to an idea that is so contemptuous?

Of course not.

Now this does not mean that those who believe the election to have been stolen are correct. But it does mean that the media is painting something as incredible that must, indeed, have some measure of merit. It must be a case worth hearing and debating.

And yet that debate never happens.

Shouldn't that also tell you something?

[Mick Harper]

[Mick Harper]

[Grant]

Ishmael is right that the election fraud case has never been entertained by the media . As soon as Trump alleged fraud we were told that this was an allegation for which there is no evidence - before they had carried out any investigation whatsoever.

And you still haven’t answered my question. What did you think when Florida fell to Trump with an increased majority?

[Ishmael]

Nearly half of Americans believe in aliens, and almost as many believe aliens are visiting earth, according to a new survey. However, less than 20% believe in alien abduction, and a bit less than that claim to have seen a UFO.
-- Huffpost

Doing my part to fight illiteracy.