In Euripides’ The Bacchae Dionysus tells Pentheus that, “Wise speech seems thoughtless to the ignorant” (56). An alternative translation and one more commonly seen in any quote generating website is “Talk sense to a fool and [they] calls you foolish.” The problem with this quote is that almost anyone can use this logic to reason that their own logic is wise and that those who do not heed it are ignorant fools. If “wise speech” is automatically perceived to be ignorance by the fool, facts and evidence become meaningless when faced with human conviction. Objective and measurable data no longer stand regardless of the number of evidence researchers put forward to prove that their claims are scientific truth.
Chris Mooney, in his article “The …show more content…
A recent poll conducted by CNN in February of 2018 stated that while 72% of Americans are alarmed about foreign interference in US elections, that number increases to a whopping 90% among Democrats and only 53% among Republicans (Stewart). The poll was conducted right after a special counsel in the Justice Department, headed by Robert Muller, charged 13 Russians for meddling in the 2016 election (Stewart). Not to mention that two former advisors in the Trump election campaign have already pleaded guilty to being involved with Russian meddling (Stewart). However, what is interesting is that Trump supporters and Republicans have gone to extreme lengths to defend Trump, with his supporters blaming journalists and the “fake news” media for spreading lies and denying that the allegations are even real in the first place (Stewart). Kunda in her article states that “directional goals may bias people’s beliefs about the nature, the causes, and the likelihood of various events,” and that “people construct such beliefs by accessing only information that is consistent with them” (487). Supporters of Trump can defend him and his campaign by picking and choosing the information that appeals to them, reasoning out that journalists and …show more content…
Democratic political pundits and foreign policy experts in mainstream news outlets, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times, have made claims that a “virtual cold war” is going on between American democracy and Russia (Heer). Even though the details that Mueller has uncovered so far in his investigation are worrying for American democracy, it is not enough to justify another Cold War or to impeach the U.S. president – yet. In fact, in the words of Kunda, even Democrats may be making the same mistake as Republicans, where their own bias is blinding them to the true nature and cause of events. In the race to impeach a president Democrats do not want, the left is emotionally motivated to choose specific information that appeals to their own
Chris Mooney, in his article “The …show more content…
A recent poll conducted by CNN in February of 2018 stated that while 72% of Americans are alarmed about foreign interference in US elections, that number increases to a whopping 90% among Democrats and only 53% among Republicans (Stewart). The poll was conducted right after a special counsel in the Justice Department, headed by Robert Muller, charged 13 Russians for meddling in the 2016 election (Stewart). Not to mention that two former advisors in the Trump election campaign have already pleaded guilty to being involved with Russian meddling (Stewart). However, what is interesting is that Trump supporters and Republicans have gone to extreme lengths to defend Trump, with his supporters blaming journalists and the “fake news” media for spreading lies and denying that the allegations are even real in the first place (Stewart). Kunda in her article states that “directional goals may bias people’s beliefs about the nature, the causes, and the likelihood of various events,” and that “people construct such beliefs by accessing only information that is consistent with them” (487). Supporters of Trump can defend him and his campaign by picking and choosing the information that appeals to them, reasoning out that journalists and …show more content…
Democratic political pundits and foreign policy experts in mainstream news outlets, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times, have made claims that a “virtual cold war” is going on between American democracy and Russia (Heer). Even though the details that Mueller has uncovered so far in his investigation are worrying for American democracy, it is not enough to justify another Cold War or to impeach the U.S. president – yet. In fact, in the words of Kunda, even Democrats may be making the same mistake as Republicans, where their own bias is blinding them to the true nature and cause of events. In the race to impeach a president Democrats do not want, the left is emotionally motivated to choose specific information that appeals to their own