Watched TV. Interview between a BBC person and a "political strategist" for one of the US presidential candidates.
The BBC person wanted a comment on the averaged-out result of all the polls.
The political strategist wanted to focus on one poll. Had she seen it?
She'd seen all of them.
But she was proposing to ignore this particular one, was she? Aha!
Let me ask you about the result of all the polls...
You're going to ignore this particular poll! I want to talk about it but you're censoring me!
Taking all the polls into account...
This is an outrage! My right to free speech! You're just a propagandist for the other side!
Struck me afterwards that all debate sounds like this nowadays. Never mind the subject matter - we're cross about it.
Either this is who we really are, because constant media interaction has enabled us to drill down to our core selves and their defences - or nothing matters half as much as our fight/flight response makes us think it does.
Oh and a cheerful think-piece was shared onto my timeline the other day, which suggested that the Black Death was a good thing because it enabled civilisation to advance.
That's all right then.
The BBC person wanted a comment on the averaged-out result of all the polls.
The political strategist wanted to focus on one poll. Had she seen it?
She'd seen all of them.
But she was proposing to ignore this particular one, was she? Aha!
Let me ask you about the result of all the polls...
You're going to ignore this particular poll! I want to talk about it but you're censoring me!
Taking all the polls into account...
This is an outrage! My right to free speech! You're just a propagandist for the other side!
Struck me afterwards that all debate sounds like this nowadays. Never mind the subject matter - we're cross about it.
Either this is who we really are, because constant media interaction has enabled us to drill down to our core selves and their defences - or nothing matters half as much as our fight/flight response makes us think it does.
Oh and a cheerful think-piece was shared onto my timeline the other day, which suggested that the Black Death was a good thing because it enabled civilisation to advance.
That's all right then.