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Mar. 18th, 2020
Epistemic Closure
Mar. 18th, 2020 01:00 amOur would-be caudillo has endorsed Tommy Tuberville in the Alabama Republican Senate race, since his lackey Jeff Sessions gravely disappointed him as Attorney General by acting with some small measure of integrity. One would expect no better from Donald Trump, but why do tens of millions of people follow such a man? Why do evangelical Christians in rural and small town America commit idolatry to a New York City playboy who has never lived by their values, or given any sign of taking his nominal religion seriously?
Three weeks ago, the Washington Post Magazine had an article reporting from Alabama, and, inter alia, quoting Tuberville referring to Trump as “our country’s greatest president,” with no indication that his audience burst into derisive laughter. When I spoke to an intelligent friend of mine, a serious Catholic, about Trump’s long record of stiffing contractors, he called all such reports “fake news.” I asked him what reason he had to think so, and he did not answer.
I get emails from the White House, so I believe that I understand part of the answer: these emails present a picture of the world grossly at variance with what I see in The Washington Post, Reason magazine, Slate, and so forth, not only in disagreeing about who the heroes are, and who is villainous, but by presenting alternative facts. People who listen to Fox News, take White House emails seriously, read the National Enquirer, and so forth, are presented with a picture of the world very different from mine, and of course, very different from what a typical Democrat believes. Once people believe a whole worldview like this, they naturally tend to reject any reports that grossly contravert it. Daniel Patrick Moynihan is sometimes credited with saying that everyone has the right to own opinions, but not to his own facts. Today, we have reached the point where opposing factions, with or without any right, have their own sets of facts.
Now that we have sunk to this point, how are we ever to return to sanity? When substantial numbers of Trumpkins fall ill and die from what their leader has called a Democratic hoax, reality may begin to penetrate their closed minds, but I wish I could be more confident about this. People who have renounced independent thought can too easily be convinced that the chieftain of their tribe never said what he said, or that it somehow doesn’t matter.
Three weeks ago, the Washington Post Magazine had an article reporting from Alabama, and, inter alia, quoting Tuberville referring to Trump as “our country’s greatest president,” with no indication that his audience burst into derisive laughter. When I spoke to an intelligent friend of mine, a serious Catholic, about Trump’s long record of stiffing contractors, he called all such reports “fake news.” I asked him what reason he had to think so, and he did not answer.
I get emails from the White House, so I believe that I understand part of the answer: these emails present a picture of the world grossly at variance with what I see in The Washington Post, Reason magazine, Slate, and so forth, not only in disagreeing about who the heroes are, and who is villainous, but by presenting alternative facts. People who listen to Fox News, take White House emails seriously, read the National Enquirer, and so forth, are presented with a picture of the world very different from mine, and of course, very different from what a typical Democrat believes. Once people believe a whole worldview like this, they naturally tend to reject any reports that grossly contravert it. Daniel Patrick Moynihan is sometimes credited with saying that everyone has the right to own opinions, but not to his own facts. Today, we have reached the point where opposing factions, with or without any right, have their own sets of facts.
Now that we have sunk to this point, how are we ever to return to sanity? When substantial numbers of Trumpkins fall ill and die from what their leader has called a Democratic hoax, reality may begin to penetrate their closed minds, but I wish I could be more confident about this. People who have renounced independent thought can too easily be convinced that the chieftain of their tribe never said what he said, or that it somehow doesn’t matter.