| Blogs > Rentier1 > What? Me worry? |
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Even Libertarians can be wrong Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, has an interesting column in the October,2013, issue of Scientific American entitled When Science Doesn't Support Beliefs Then Ideology Needs To Give Way. Shermer writes that he has been a Libertarian since college. His position of gun control was the Libertarian one - minimum regulation. Then he did some reading on the science of guns and homicides, and concluded that the libertarian position doesn't work if people are armed but have no training and few restraints. The data to convince him had been there all along, he had ignored it because it didn't fit into his belief system. He has had debates on this matter and sees the same sort of cherry-picking to suit ideological convictions as he once practiced. This is called confirmation bias. I have noted this tendency to deny and/or ignore evidence many times in SFF blogs over the years. Not only on gun control, but also universal health care. |
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5/21/2014 7:15 am |
Gav: This blog is about confirmation bias, not gun safety education. I know you would prefer not to talk about that, but try to be a bit more subtle when trying to change the direction of the discussion.
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Personally, I think guns, and other weapons and forms of combat should be taught early in the public schools. Not necessarily to make every student an expert on such things, but to give everyone sufficient knowledge and understanding to enhance their situational awareness. Even if individuals have no interest or desire to be marksmen or own a firearm, or even if they wish to repeal the 2nd Amendment, THEY ALL need this info to be aware of the dangers in a realistic way. (E.g.: Today we have people in high office who don't know the differences between automatic, semi-automatic, and full-automatic firearms, yet they participate and sometimes lead policy discussions on guns and 2nd Amendment rights.) GBU, Gavin
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5/20/2014 10:59 am |
Alas, as much as it pains me to say, confirmation bias is not restricted to the Reichers.
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