Fact Checking Crazy Statements

I have not hidden that I am not a fan of election season and we are in the middle of it right now. One problem we have this year is all of the crazy statements being made. I try to stay politically neutral in this blog as I try to focus on technical issues and so I will try not to pick a side and just explain what I am seeing. Recently I have noticed that both sides of the US Presidential Election are making crazy statements. While the news tries to fact check some of the statements, they are definitely biased. Fortunately we all have the ability to check the validity of things being said.

As a child I used to make all sorts of crazy statements that seemed true in my mind but probably crossed the line with actual facts. I would say things like, "I just rode my bike faster than anyone has ever gone before." I doubt I am alone with such hyperbole but children are allowed such liberties. Politicians running for office should not be allowed to make similarly crazy statements. A quick Internet search would show that the record for the fastest person on a bicycle is 183.93 miles per hour and set by a woman in 2018 on the Utah Salt Flats. I don't think my 7-year-old self came close to that number even though I rode down a hill. Whenever you hear someone say something like crime rates and inflation are both down, it is easy to run your own Internet query and see if it is true. Doing so will allow you to see how the statistics have been manipulated and you may discover that you disagree with the politician's comment.

The problem with doing your own fact checking is that it takes more time than accepting statements as facts. Most people don't want to go through the effort and politicians know that. So does the media. Unfortunately a lot of the fact checking done by the media is wrong. When a politician says something crazy like, "This policy enacted by my opponent is causing birds to fly upside down," the media instantly dismisses the statement as an outright lie. Have they bothered to check the validity of it? Nope. It just sounds so outlandish that they dismiss it and nobody bothers to correct them even if it is true. I have discovered that a number of crazy statements thrown out by this year's presidential candidates sound utterly stupid and sensationalized but have more merit than mainstream media wants to admit. I only wish more people would do such research.

Ultimately there is a bias we all have called, "Confirmation Bias." In a nutshell it says that no matter what facts we are presented, we will use the data to strengthen our current belief. If we favor a particular candidate, we twist negative stories about him or her to reinforce why we like the person. My guess is that any fact checking results in strengthening of your current belief about a candidate. So if you have made up your mind as to whom you are voting for this year, fact checking is a waste of time.