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The Left Knows ‘Exactly’ What Trump Said
We are experiencing the worst case of confirmation bias in this presidency that we’ve ever seen. Due to the extreme nature of its appearance and the rage with which it’s expressed, we should be very concerned. Let me explain what confirmation bias is:
Confirmation bias occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs. When people would like a certain idea or concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true. They are motivated by wishful thinking. This error leads the individual to stop gathering information when the evidence gathered so far confirms the views or prejudices one would like to be true.
Once we have formed a view, we embrace information that confirms that view while ignoring, or rejecting, information that casts doubt on it. Confirmation bias suggests that we don’t perceive circumstances objectively. We pick out those bits of data that make us feel good because they confirm our prejudices. Thus, we may become prisoners of our assumptions.
You might suggest that confirmation bias is baked into the cake of politics. I wouldn’t disagree. But it has become so extreme that I wonder if there is any room for actually identifying the truth or relatively objective information.
The best examples I can offer for this latest display of confirmation bias is the remark that I heard on a few television stations Wednesday. In interviews, the commentators on the Left would interpret what was written in the transcript (which became in their definition, notes) of the telephone call between Trump and Zelenskyy. Commentators believed that Trump was threatening to withhold funds from Ukraine if Zelenskyy didn’t find dirt on Biden or his son. The transcript didn’t reflect this exchange. In fact, it would be difficult to infer that this was Trump’s intent. Other people believed that Trump’s asking for a “favor” was intended to put pressure on Zelenskyy to conduct the investigation. Most of us outside of politics often ask people for favors without any kind of threat implication.
Without listing additional “interpretations” of the transcript, other commentators challenged, more puzzled than angry, the interpretation of the Leftist commentators, saying that Trump had not said what they stated. Several of them protested these challenges and said, “That’s exactly what he said.” Not “I believe he meant to say that,” or “We could infer he meant that,” or any number of qualifiers. They insisted that he had said exactly what they stated. On hearing this statement at least three times in 24 hours, I was, to say the least, unnerved.
In addition, the Left has either ignored or discounted Joe Biden’s quid pro quo statement to the Ukrainians that they needed to fire a prosecutor or the US would withhold funds. I continue to be baffled at the Left’s reaction (or lack of it).
Many people have called the Left, including media and politicians, “unhinged.” The level of self-deception, rejection of information that could contradict their narrative, or the vehemence that colors their beliefs is dangerous. With the losses they’ve experienced due to the failure of the Russian hoax, the wasted efforts of the Mueller report, and even the lack of success with the latest attack on Brett Kavanaugh, I see Republicans ridiculing the Democrats’ impeachment efforts, and I understand their view. These actions are beyond the pale, are certain to fail, and we can sit by and watch the Democrats implode.
Really?
Some folks are assuming that once Durham and Barr finish their investigation, the Left will back down. In fact, I suspect they will double-down.
I think that Republicans have to be proactive in discounting and countering this narrative, and they can’t afford to wait. They must find creative and even unconventional ways to speak out. We can hope that the public will see the irrationality and lies that the Left is promulgating, but are we so sure that the public will see through their words? With Donald Trump’s unpredictability, do we know for certain that we can trust the public to see something at least closer to the truth?
I’m not so sure, and I’m very concerned.
Published in Politics
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
There is no “simple reading” for the Democrats. I think you know that @larry3435. They are too blinded by hatred to comprehend the words. Your comments on impeachment are insightful; it will not be the same for Trump as it was for Clinton. We have to make sure we don’t just shrug our shoulders and assume the public will see through the charade. I’m not convinced they will. Thanks.
I don’t know, I think the President’s response this last week was more subdued than usual.
Check out his opening statements in the video that kicks off Franco’s “Smackdown” post. (You gotta skip to about 50 minutes in before the President starts speaking.) He addresses the controversy right off the top, in calm, even tones.
Wow. Nailed this one, Drew. Just substitute Repubs in the first part and Dems in the second.
Honestly, it depends on when you see him speak, even in the same situation. My biggest worry is his inconsistency. He’s capable of sounding sane and sympathetic. But can he do it consistently?
And I think he will be excused for it because that’s the way he is. OTOH, Clinton had the good old boy, best friend, used car salesman image to uphold. However, he did get angry at times, a famous time being when he tried to blame Rush for the Oklahoma City bombing. He was on AF 1 complaining to a local radio station Rush had three hours every day without a truth detector. You could hear the anger in his voice – very uncharacteristic compared to his public image.
The problem though, is that the candidate who could most woo swing voters as a return to the pre-Trump times is himself caught up in this. Whether or not this was the plan by other Democrats, they’re going to have a hard time going after Trump on the Ukraine while claiming there was nothing shady about Hunter Biden’s connections there and the firing of the prosecutor at Biden’s orders who happened to be looking into corruption at the company Hunter was being paid $50,000 a month to use his legendary business talents on behalf of.
If Biden gets taken out, that leaves voters not with a candidate who wants to go back to the Obama years, but one who thinks the party wasn’t left enough during the Obama years. Then the economics start playing a bigger factor.
Funny you should say that. This is exactly what CNN and MSNBC are saying currently. So they are trying.
“Looking back on the Clinton impeachment, the result was that Clinton’s popularity and approval ratings went up, and Dems did very well in the next off year election. The same thing ought to happen here.”
In a better world that would be true, but we do not live in that better world.
First of all, the Media will contort the evidence on this to favor the Democrats no matter what. Ethics, honesty, and integrity are completely foreign concepts to today’s Media, the Democrats, and utterly disgusting and evil Never Trumpers like Senators Mitt Romney and Richard Burr.
Secondly, due to generations of American teachers dumbing down the American public through their Marxist indoctrination America has had the very sad impact of deluding millions of Americans to the extent that they can no longer appreciate the difference between the truth and pure unadulterated Bullcrap, particularly in regards to anything political.
Furthermore, Kevin Starr was a total clown prosecutor who focused more on the sex between Slick Willy and Monica, which while disgusting and vile, was not grounds for impeachment and nearly completely overlooked Slick Willie’s suborning of perjury in his trial with Paula Jones which was grounds for impeachment. Clarity was not Starr’s strong suit.
Nancy Pelosi this morning said that AG Barr “has gone rogue.” Obviously his name being mentioned between Trump and Zelensky and all his previous evil acts makes him guilty–of something. The Left is definitely shaking in its boots over the AG/Durham report that will be coming out, and they’re already shooting their cannons.
They’ll give it a shot, or at least the pro-Joe ones will. But the others who are 100-percent in on pushing candidates who are to Biden’s left aren’t going to let him slide on this. And the candidates aren’t going to target him in public for a while, because they don’t want to alienate wacky-but-lovable Uncle Joe’s base, especially the African-American voters, who’ll they’d need in the general election against Trump next November.
Confirmation bias explains some of the poorly informed’s continued confidence in their news sources, but it does not explain the democrats nor the media. They know the truth. But they have bought in to the Soviet and Nazi theory that the masses can be lead around by the nose by effective propaganda. Quote from Wikipedia:
Historian Robert Ensor explains that “Hitler…puts no limit on what can be done by propaganda; people will believe anything, provided they are told it often enough and emphatically enough, and that contradicters are either silenced or smothered in calumny.”
Clearly, the democrats and media are convinced that there is no price to be paid for the lies and accusations, as long as they keep the mask on and keep the lies coming. If one lie wears out, the next, new lie is whipped up to keep the masses minds occupied.
They believe we are sheep. That is the only logical explanation for the things you hear from the democrat primary candidates, the democrat congressmen, and their media enablers.
The only question left is, are they right? Are there a large enough percentage of Americans unable to think beyond the pablum they are fed to elect this bunch of frauds?
I fear the answer. I try to keep faith that my fellow countrymen are not morons and zombies, but it gets shaken daily. When Schiff talks, and the whole room doesn’t break out laughing at the farce, I have to wonder.
Learn how to read, learn how to think, learn how to persuade–in that order.
Grammar/reading, logic, rhetoric.
Bring back the Trivium.