All the powers in the world can by their authority no more persuade people of a point of fact than they can change it
Pascal
(Now, in truth, people are often persuaded of false 'facts' by the powers that be -- but regardless, those powers cannot change facts -- inconvenient or otherwise).
No, one cannot change "facts" but facts have a funny way of aligning with one's own ideology as long as one ignores other facts. For example, it is a fact that Stats Canada says the crime rate has been falling since the early nineties. But that fact can be interpreted many ways! Compare it to the crime rate of the 1950's and it is still shockingly high. Ask how the stat is calculated and you see that it is only crimes reported to police. On recidivism you see that they take the strict definition meaning a convicted criminal committing the SAME crime. Facts are facts but interpretation, ahh, there's the rub!
1 comment:
No, one cannot change "facts" but facts have a funny way of aligning with one's own ideology as long as one ignores other facts. For example, it is a fact that Stats Canada says the crime rate has been falling since the early nineties. But that fact can be interpreted many ways! Compare it to the crime rate of the 1950's and it is still shockingly high. Ask how the stat is calculated and you see that it is only crimes reported to police. On recidivism you see that they take the strict definition meaning a convicted criminal committing the SAME crime. Facts are facts but interpretation, ahh, there's the rub!
Post a Comment