Do facts matter?

[radind]

(05-16-2016, 11:49 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: With the Internet come the poseurs. People with a cranky and specious set of beliefs, whether  Afrocentrism or Holocaust denial, can get their ideas disseminated as they could never be in the academic press or even mainstream media. Plug Holocaust denial at any mainstream newspaper and you will be cast out the door fast.

People have to become their own gatekeepers to guard against patent nonsense and recognize that some bits of knowledge aren't particularly useful, and at that we are ill-trained. Many of us simply do not care. If it titillates, so much the better.

I have no idea of how many people are at the level of consciousness typical of the supermarket tabloids. Of course those tabloids tell people what they want to know -- heavily about entertainment. That is a very low level. It does not fact-check.

...What is the real difference between data and fact, anyway? Data is something to draw conclusions from. For this there are statistical devices to establish the validity of potential conclusions. But such is college material easily evaded by college students not in the sciences or in activities adopting scientific tools (like economics and sociology). Facts are conclusions or observations.

A lesser item is a factoid. Thus that David Irving claims that the Holocaust did not happen is a factoid -- something that says more about David Irving than about the reality of the Holocaust. So I can say as truth that David Irving says the Holocaust never happened without stating that the Holocaust did happen. If you know nothing about David Irving then you are in no way harmed. If you accept what he says as truth -- egad!

 The factoids and extreme views are fairly easy to sort out and are not usually the problem. There can be difficulty in communicating when two sides look at the same data and reach different conclusions, without realizing that their worldviews are determining their conclusions, not the facts.