On Nov 8, 2004, at 8:50 PM, Gautam Mukunda wrote:
So, apropos of our recent discussion, John Perry Barlow, a very smart guy, just cited the "100,000 dead Iraqi" casualty figure as if it were true. Apparently no one has shown him the falsification yet.
Or maybe they have. This type of behavior does happen pretty regularly; ICR "scientists" often continue spouting discredited data that "proves" creation to be viable, even after repeatedly being corrected.
So it's possible that Barlow's doing something similar.
From my perspective the 100,000 dead citation is pretty high; I mean I doubt that figure too. I don't support the war and I never did (I doubted the WMD claims from the very beginning), but promulgating statistics so obviously faulty does nothing to help the cause.
How quickly do you think this piece of leftist propaganda is going to be on Al Jazeera?
I wonder sometimes if they're not the source of it. :(
As to how it happens: Well, it happens a lot, so it's probably a fundamental component of human thought. We *do* tend to filter and we *do* tend to take note of only data that seem significant to us (which is why some people believe in paranormal things). And of course some people just have such an intense attachment to a given ideology that they'll outright ignore contrary material.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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