You’d think that the liberal base of the Democratic party would make an excellent basis for a textbook about how social pathologies play out in creating beliefs. They are, after all, pathological. And their pathologies do, after all, cause them to be consistently wrong. Our concern is that there’s not much to say. The things they write and the ways they think aren’t so much case studies or examples – they’re near-ideal illustrations. Take the way that conspiracy theory corrupts ones ability to evaluate evidence. From someone called “DarkSyde”, who posted last night:
Bagpipes, drum beats, Chinese rockets, the idea is the same; to psych the other guy out. Expect GOP Chinese rockets galore for the next 72 hours. They want to distract you, to break your focus, to sap you, spook you, and scare you away from phone banking, GOTV ops, make you second guess yourselves. They want to erode your confidence, depress you, talk you into staying home, etc.
So you put this in the textbook and write: “See? When disproof becomes proof, reasoned analysis has been replaced by paranoid fantasy.” But where do you go after that? There’s nothing left to say. The example, as it were, speaks for itself.
Previously: DKos Conspiracy Theories Literally Crazier Than Anything We Can Imagine, What Liberal Academic Bias?, Chafee, Bolton, and MoveOn Anti-Semitism
