On 4/5/13 11:34 AM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote:
From Abortion, Climate Change, Gun Control to Social Security and
Taxes, the http://www.justfacts.com/ offers just the [distilled] facts
on about 14 major topics. I thought this site with its emphasis on
objectivity might perhaps be useful to the group.
I took a gander (mostly at my favorite hot-button topics) and found that
while the site *does* emit an *air* of unbiasedness... I'm pretty sure
their "distillation" is somewhat deliberately selective. It wasn't
hard, for example, for me to guess what the (big)Brother site was going
to espouse. In fact this site seems to be entirely designed to support
the arguments of the more (obviously) biased and opinionated site.
The "unbiased" site seems to have been "salted" with facts that
contradict the position of the "biased" site but when I *then* read the
more biased site, I found that they had convenient "dismissals" ready
for the "inconvenient facts" while glomming on to the "convenient"
ones. Other, important and "inconvenient" facts were not mentioned
either place. Go figure.
I suspect a similar pair of sites might exist with the "opposite"
leaning with similar features. I spent most of the 80's, 90's in
constant horror at the same kind of rhetoric used to support any number
of "politically correct" positions. It is not just "one side" of the
political division in this country that resorts to such rhetoric, but
somehow it seems to have gotten heavily unbalanced in the last 10-15
years (might just be my shifting perspective?).
The sister (brother|sibling) site http://www.justfactsdaily.com/ may
be more politically motivated and picking and choosing what to discuss.
http://www.justfactsdaily.com/the-anti-science-accusation
comes on clear and strong...
I was expecting (hoping for) a *more* unbiased pro/con discussion... the
kind where when the arguments are complete there are still something
left standing on both sides, not ones where one side has been trampled
down and the other stands victorious, foot on the other's chest to a
roaring crowd of sycophants... waiting for the "thumbs down"!
Carry On,
- Steve
PS... good followup Cody... do remember that both Fox News and Rush
Limbaugh *claim* to be "entertainment"... which explains why roughly 50%
of the population is *rabidly* fascinated and the other 50% is
*morbidly* fascinated by their antics!
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