Sunday [1]

Wikipedia "editors", a euphemism for closed shop Wokism, oft write: "this article has multiple issues" and goodness but does this morning's TDS (below) ever have issues, few of which are down to their misleading but which far highlight more the very problems of information transference, confirmation bias, a priori assumptions, academic fashion, plus the snuffing out of discussion of clear anomalies.

From the get-go, there's the issue of even understanding that opening paragraph above and for those even able to take that onboard is my arrogant questioning of someone's intellectual capacity, illustrated nicely in the comment I've retained for well over a decade on my "others say" page:

"You want to know why? Because you are a cretin.  You are a mad man, of limited intellect, with an axe to grind.  You come over as slightly unhinged."

I've always loved the "slightly" bit there and must acknowledge that the lady's daughter did ask me to take it down, said lady having a bad day at the time but it does illustrate how manner and choice of words can sway, before any "facts" can even be established:

There's also the point Chuckles used to make about lefty academics:

... and how far one can trust a child or at least a child-brain, as in the opening item here:

... where cheerleading for respective camps causes said cheerleaders to cherry pick which bits of data they'll choose to run with ... and which will simply be ignored, often under instructions from the Central Planning Committee.

Then we get to paywall news outlets being any way to determine truth ... wot, you'd take on board anything written by intergenerational marxist Toynbee or the quite unintellectual feminist Codswallop (see Arron Banks) or back to said boy wonder Jones?

You do see just some of the issues of people with the vote relying on such sources for "truth" ... and what of the Hitchens celebs? Piers Morgan?  It becomes bewildering. Humans start choosing "trusted sources" based on many criteria, not all being ruthlessly ferreting with neither fear nor favour.

And that child in the photo above ... her very looks are against her ... better a wizened old professor perhaps or caustic bstd who rips apart humbug at the seams and who takes no prisoners?

Then we look at the techniques used in research and data manipulation:

https://nourishingobscurity.blogspot.com/2008/02/groupthink-gentle-art-of-persuasion.html

http://archive-random-nour-obscur.blogspot.com/2006/10/appendix.html

... including:

http://archive-random-nour-obscur.blogspot.com/2006/10/appendix-h.html

... and:

Perry Mason, advocate, had just finished pointing out an anomaly in Sergeant Holcombe’s evidence in a murder trial and now asked, ‘Does that seem logical to you?’

Sergeant Holcombe hesitated a moment, then said, ‘Well, that’s one of those little things. That doesn’t cut so much ice. Lots of times you’ll find little things which are more or less inconsistent with the general interpretation of evidence.'

‘I see,’ Mason said. ‘And when you encounter such little things, what do you do, Sergeant?’

‘You just ignore ’em,’ said Holcombe.

‘And how many such things have you ignored, Sergeant, in reaching your [current] conclusion?’ 

A girl at one university asked me to tell her what Bloom's taxonomy was saying or Dewey or Piaget and I told her that she was meant to feel overwhelmed by the sheer weight of their grossly oversimplified and cherrypicked marxist rantings, designed for intellectual retards ... which hardly helped in the task set by her lecturer ... and so it goes on. 

It did not help with the security of my tenure either.

And why should anything academic turn out to be treated as gospel, while Adam Smith or Karl Popper are ignored?  But even the latter's "empirical falsification" has its limits when something spiritual is involved ... empiricism is great to be sure but is it the only test of weighty matters of other dimensions or even the dark edges of our solar system?

And then we get to the deathjab ... we have collated at our sites more than enough, I'd say, to at least question the way the jabs were rolled out ... to establish at least reasonable doubt ... before even starting on "climate science" and king chas's bollox at copulate 28 in Dubai.

Before even getting onto the Irish govt's severe punishments to any poor sods they've hacked and found questioning the govt line.

And so on.