Tazmanian Devil
Banned
- Joined
- May 28, 2015
- Messages
- 972
- Reaction score
- 183
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Very Conservative
My Take On Why We Don't Wait For The Facts To Emerge
Whenever some news event moves us to speculate on the motivations or identities of a perp or the outcome of a jury trial before the facts are in or the details are made known, we do so for the same reason we bet on the lottery.
We know we have a chance of attaining a fortune we would never have a way of attaining any other way.
With the Lottery, we know we will never have a chance of becoming fabulously wealthy in any other way.
So we wager what we can afford and hope for a miracle.
When we speculate on a news event before knowing the facts we wager our credibility on our theory being proved correct.
And we do this because we know we might never have the kind of political acumen to be respected for real insight. The closest we will ever get is to guess (although some guesses are educated guesses) and hope we are lucky enough to have guessed correctly.
The problem is that instead of a few bucks we can afford on a Lotto ticket we wager our credibility.
And that tells you just how little some value their credibility.
But it also says something about our audience.
One minute a political "observer" may wager his credibility and be proven wrong. But then he will expect to be taken seriously in another thread and no one holds his feet to the fire and calls him on his stupid, premature guess which may or may not have been proved wrong...or right.
There should be a way of keeping score so that those who are reliable observers will get the credit they deserve and those who are just lotto players are given whatever respect they are due.
My credibility means something to me.
That is why I usually wait until the facts emerge before going out on a limb trying to guess the details and hope I am proved right.
I am right enough that I don't need the cheap thrill of guessing lucky.
And i don't like being in the crowd of posters who have no other hope of ever being proved right except by guessing lucky.
But that's just me.
Tazmanian Devil
Copyright © 2015
Use as needed, just give credit and do not edit.
Whenever some news event moves us to speculate on the motivations or identities of a perp or the outcome of a jury trial before the facts are in or the details are made known, we do so for the same reason we bet on the lottery.
We know we have a chance of attaining a fortune we would never have a way of attaining any other way.
With the Lottery, we know we will never have a chance of becoming fabulously wealthy in any other way.
So we wager what we can afford and hope for a miracle.
When we speculate on a news event before knowing the facts we wager our credibility on our theory being proved correct.
And we do this because we know we might never have the kind of political acumen to be respected for real insight. The closest we will ever get is to guess (although some guesses are educated guesses) and hope we are lucky enough to have guessed correctly.
The problem is that instead of a few bucks we can afford on a Lotto ticket we wager our credibility.
And that tells you just how little some value their credibility.
But it also says something about our audience.
One minute a political "observer" may wager his credibility and be proven wrong. But then he will expect to be taken seriously in another thread and no one holds his feet to the fire and calls him on his stupid, premature guess which may or may not have been proved wrong...or right.
There should be a way of keeping score so that those who are reliable observers will get the credit they deserve and those who are just lotto players are given whatever respect they are due.
My credibility means something to me.
That is why I usually wait until the facts emerge before going out on a limb trying to guess the details and hope I am proved right.
I am right enough that I don't need the cheap thrill of guessing lucky.
And i don't like being in the crowd of posters who have no other hope of ever being proved right except by guessing lucky.
But that's just me.
Tazmanian Devil
Copyright © 2015
Use as needed, just give credit and do not edit.
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