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Confirmation Bias and politics

OK, so it's a personality type which party you vote for. 47% look at Reagan and like him.

The choice November 3rd is between a historical grifter who wrecks up the place and a centrist Democrat. From the left I find it weird that people paint Biden as commie loving. I see him past center into the Republican range, and would criticize him as not being liberal enough.

I follow conservative news. It's like like trying gay sex to prove I'm hetrosexual. I'm so grossed out by what they say. I can see much of it is just confirmation bias, story x proves that Liberals are contradictory or secretly communists who want to ruin this country. If they slay strawmen, perhaps I invest time in similar activities.

I imagine the same things happen for Liberals, so I somehow wish to transcend. My friend points out that gerrymandering happens on both ends of the political spectrum. I am in fact against all gerrymandering, even if I post an example by conservatives. Is there an analysis of who does it most? Nevermind. We probably agree that it is bad.

The point isn't to to win over the 47 percent who differ. The point is to create the best government based on our shared values, even when it seems like partisanship leaves us without a shared reality. 

A liberal doesn't have to see the us/them split and partisanship. My administration would include George Will, and not be just sycophants and yes men. Empathy with conservatives is important to move forward.

I was very much influenced by an article that pointing out facts that contradict the liar in chief, won't persuade the other side. I can't find the original article but Scientific America has an article answering the question I have--what will convince them then? How do you debate, try to be persuasive when the other side does not use reason or facts as possible disconfirmation.

I'd like to briefly point out that I studied with David Miller, a disciple of Karl Popper. Popper is famous for pointing out that a scientific attitude must be looking out for things that don't confirm your theory. That has been a cornerstone of my epistemology. That is why I read conservative and Republican political work, hoping to find something that disconfirms my theories. Mostly I see confirmation bias, people who feel they have proved their theory is right. It lacks the transcendence I'm looking for. But I still search.

It's possible that liberals underestimate "getting things for free" to the morale of the other 47 percent. It's possible liberals underestimate the potential for dictators from the left to enforce their plays. I state now that I wish to have a democratic socialist America, not interested in forcing in an undemocratic way.

I don't really feel like conservatives are committed to democracy. They fear immigrants and college just increase liberal numbers, and therefore are against it. Trump actually thanked the African-Americans for not voting in numbers.

I only have two friends who have switched, and they've gone from the left to the right. There will not be some event where somehow all the conservatives become liberal, as much as the paranoid fantasy of the right is that college turns everyone into a liberal.

My argument for liberalism is that it's less murderous. Available health care, affordable public transportation, affordable housing, free college, policies that take the environment into account, indeed the future, policies that work to include minorities, just don't kill as many people. 35 children die every year for our love of loose gun regulation.

The liberals that ask where are the guns that protect us from the government taking over at the protests, is not seen by the conservatives. They see the protesters are not respecting law and order, property and their non-violent protests are not really non-violent. The left see the Arab Spring as a great amazing movement. The right sees it as another violent attempt to take over politics.

For me to murder less is the goal. Despite conservatives often being religious, they are surprisingly "survival of the fittest". They identify with the winners, they don't like this obsession with the unfortunate, the weak who died. They want to move away the dreck in the way of winners, because they fancy they will be a winner one day. Study great men, dead white men. Liberals want to get rid of Shakespeare (not true by the way).

They work hard, they don't want people moving ahead who aren't working hard like them. Thus the collapse of the middle class works in the rhetoric of the right's favor, even though it would be a left leaning administration that enacted policies that would increase the size of the middle class. The right voting citizen is offended when they are told they have voted against their own interest. The left is condescending. They are offensive. And they are wrong to the personality type that wants smaller federal, state and local government. Clearly the left needs to be the bigger person. Despite being offended by the condescension of my conservative friends, they do feel attacked and disrespected. For tolerance to be real, we have to tolerate those who think differently than us, not use tolerance to witch hunt conservatives. Individual thinking is encouraged.

Never mind that roads are communism, all own the roads. Never mind that conservatives like their garbage being taken away by government. Never mind that expecting more from the government produces better results, they want to wreck government so liberals don't get used to entitlements. Sure, they like medicare when their parents die, and leave huge medical bills the government pay. Despite being all about fiscal responsibility they use raising the debt as a strategy to handcuff the democrats when they are in office. The right accepts the dog eat dog world and fights like it. The liberals can't raise to the occasion and have failed in producing great leaders. You can't be a great leader if you can't win the election.

Samantha Power just wants us to stop genocide. She gets a lot of push back. It's sort of like the obvious ethical right--you shouldn't kill babies for pleasure. Maybe you should gas your own people (Syria). Maybe you should kidnap women to marry them to your soldiers (Boko Harem). Maybe we could say the word genocide regarding Albania because the word was created to describe what happened, even if Turkey dislikes that idea.

Black Lives Matter is just about valuing all lives including black lives. Maybe some leaders learned about Marxist ideology, but that doesn't mean they aren't American and want democracy. You can learn about something and not become a seduced cult member, it's called education.

Here is what Scientific America says to to persuade: "1 keep emotions out of the exchange, 2 discuss, don't attack (no ad hominem and no ad Hitlerum), 3 listen carefully and try to articulate the other position accurately, 4 show respect, 5 acknowledge that you understand why someone might hold that opinion, and 6 try to show how changing facts does not necessarily mean changing worldviews."

Sometimes you have to be the bigger person to lead, to be the adult, to get the best results. When Biden wins, there needs to be an amnesty for conservatives who have perpetrated atrocities during Trump's brief madness. They need to be forgiven and included. Even though Oedipus took out his eyes when he realized what he did, conservatives aren't as introspective, and will see external enemies. We must continue to be the bigger person. The temptation will be to make conservatives feel like we felt under Trump. Resist. Think about the larger goals.

So I'm not sure I'm happy that BLM seems to have won the sports national anthem kneeling culture war.  I'd rather focus on governmental policy and actions. Maybe the culture war is just an extension, I don't know. But I'm more and more wary of the sense that conservatives are losing the war.

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