Context and (mis)perception

[vakkotaur]

Recently William Bennett said something that, taken out of context, would be rather offensive. Unsurprisingly, it was stripped of context and used to make him and anyone associated with him seem evil. rillifane has some context and some interesting observations on things.

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

I noticed that too, it made me sick.

Just two days ago, someone posted an editorial to my newspaper saying, in effect, "Hey, notice how much lower crime is now? Well, a large part of it is due to legal abortion! So few unwanted kids are growing up to become criminals these days, all thanks to Planned Parenthood and pals."

I was quite tempted to send in a reply mentioning that many unwanted children become wanted after they're born, that we're aborting artists and writers and fine members of the community along with the criminals, and that many people who are opposed to the death penalty after trial are apparently in favor of the death penalty pre-emptively. Maybe it's not too late.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Now wait a minute!

Remember a week or two ago when jmaynard posted that thing about Sen. Dianne Feinstein's reasons for voting no on John Roberts? Where was your concern for context then? I was the only one who even bothered to try to find out what exactly Sen. Feinstein said.

I hate to say it, but it's your bias that's showing this time.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do have a bias. It has been my experience that usually the left leaning propagators of claims have left out something (http://www.livejournal.com/users/vakkotaur/137860.html) important (http://www.livejournal.com/users/vakkotaur/72458.html) and usually the right leaning propagators of claims have backed up their claims with research. "Usually" is, admittedly, not the same as "always" and the occasional reversal does cause consternation.