[Tango-L] Style Wars: Truth and Truthiness

[Konstantin Zahariev]

On Nov 27, 2007 5:39 PM, Jay Rabe <jayrabe at hotmail.com> wrote:
[...]
> For these kind of questions and issues, it seems the relevant core factors are personal preference and values,
> and I cannot imagine what evidence one might offer to support either polar position.
>
>             J
>           TangoMoments.com

Yes, this is what I was trying to say to... umm... the kushi_bushi
character I was replying to earlier. Opinions (as in personal
preferences and feelings) about art forms are not exactly falsifiable.

Cheers,
     Konstantin


> > To: Tango-L at mit.edu
> > From: Stephen.P.Brown at dal.frb.org
> > Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:59:03 -0600
> > Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Style Wars: Truth and Truthiness
> >
>
> > Previously I wrote:
> > >> Rather than approximating the truth, the forever ongoing style wars on
> > >>Tango-L are more likely to yield what Stephen Colbert calls
> > 'truthiness.'
> >
> > Konstantin responded:
> > >[T]ruthiness is not an inherent property of the medium or
> > >method of organization and of information exchange, but
> > >of the people that participate in it.
> >
> > Agreed, but I would add "and of the way the relate to each other."
> >
> > >Consequently, this problem seems to appear more readily and
> > >is more difficult to quash in places/meeing groups/blogs that
> > >are mostly populated by right-wing authoritarians.
> >
> > I don't see what authoritarians (right-wing or otherwise) have to do with
> > it.  Truthiness is the result of informal networks of like-minded
> > individuals who reinforce each others' perspectives and help maintain
> > individual biases.  The key to an unbiased outcome is that there is a
> > mechanism for sharing and aggregating the information and that observers
> > are independent of each other rather than polarized into identifiable
> > groups with self-perpetuating biases.  In a polarized world where
> > liked-minded individuals replicate the information that others have
> > provided, the independence property necessary to avoid truthiness isn't
> > found.
> >
> > As I see it, when it comes to style wars and many other topics, Tango-L
> > participants do seem to separate themselves into smaller networks of
> > people who hold substantially similar views and support each other.  In
> > such cases, they generate self-perpetuating polarizing views with an
> > us-versus-them mentality.  Those are exactly the conditions that develop
> > competing truthinesses.
> >
> > With best regards,
> > Steve
> >
> >
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