Sunday, September 9, 2012

Better. Funnier. Truthier, but the 'crawl' disclaimers are also more factual.


Apparently Mitts on R- Money is relying on projecting a false image, his latest etch-a-sketch image, to deceive voters into thinking he's something he is not.

People want to believe someone has simple, painless answers to problems that we should never have allowed to develop under Bush; the solutions are not more of the same mistaken fiscal and tax policies or more wars.

The difference between truth and belief were best characterized by Stephen Colbert back in 2005; now we have more of the science behind how we come to believe false things, including about politicians.  Psychonomics is a branch of experimental psychology.

From wikipedia:
The Psychonomic Society is one of the primary societies for general scientific experimental psychology in the United States. Although open to all areas of experimental psychology, its members typically study areas related to cognitive psychology, such as learning, memory, attention, motivation, perception, categorization, decision making, and psycholinguistics. Its name is taken from the word psychonomics, meaning "the science of the laws of the mind".
The society includes about 2500 members, including associate members. Full and associate members hold Ph.D. or equivalent degrees in their field, and full members must have published significant research other than their doctoral dissertation.
The Psychonomic Society publishes six journals:
  • Learning & Behavior (formerly Animal Learning & Behavior)
  • Behavior Research Methods
  • Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience
  • Memory & Cognition
  • Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
  • Psychonomic Bulletin & Review


And here is the original 'the word' truthiness from that first show:


But of course, now truthiness has become recognized in the dictionary as an actual word and concept. In the post-truth era of politics, it has become a tenet of conservatism to believe what one wants to believe, and to disbelieve facts, no matter how valid, which differ from the preferred belief. Here's the entry from dictionary.com:

truth·i·ness  /ˈtruθinɪs/ [troo-thee-nis]
 noun
the quality of seeming to be true according to one's intuition, opinion, or perception without regard to logic, factual evidence, or the like: the growing trend of truthiness as opposed to truth.

World English Dictionary
truthiness (ˈtruːθɪˌnəs) — n informal (of a belief, etc) the quality of being considered to be true because of what the believer wishes or feels, regardless of the facts
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