Whiners

I get a lot of complaints about this blog. Some say it’s “snarky.” Some say it’s “incendiary.”  Others say it’s “idiotic.”

Well…I say “Duh!” Look whose writing it.

Anyway, I usually ignore pointless whining, but a few alert readers have pointed out some deficiencies I need to correct (and I am not referring to all the crappy spelling and punctuation.)

One alert reader complained that the last blog was unfair to the Koch brothers because, in reality, they are wonderful philanthropists who support opera and art.  As proof, this reader cites a recent article in the New Yorker, which documents their many cultural gifts.  It’s worth reading.

Additional evidence of the good work done by the Kochs can be found on the web here and also in the Nation.

So in the face of all this evidence, I am rethinking my indictment of the Kochs.

Then there is the earlier blog in which I railed against Obama's job-killing tsunami of regulation.

One reader points out to me that that Washington Post has put this one to rest in the article by Dana Milbank in which he explains how Obama has freed the chicken industry from onerous job-killing regulations.

Finally, there is the whole thing about my constant references to Obama’s “failed Presidency.”

Readers ask, “How do you know Obama is a failed President. He passed the biggest social program since Medicare. He knocked off Osama Bin Laden. He extricated us from Iraq. Etc. Etc. Blah Blah. Blah.”

Here is how I know that Obama is a “failed” President.  It’s not about all those irritating accomplishments. It’s not even about facts.

It’s because, like you, I have heard Obama described as a “failed President” in every single statement made in public by Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich.  The description must have been repeated over 10,000 times now.

   

According to Nobel Prize winning cognitive psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, the best way to make people believe something is true is to repeat it endlessly. On page 62 of his book entitled “Think Fast and Slow,” he explains how frequent repetition works. The reason we believe something to be true after hearing it repeatedly, he says, is that our minds cannot distinguish easily between familiarity and truth.  After a while, the repeated phrase becomes familiar and, therefore, we conclude that it likely to be true.

This system reduces our cognitive frustration and anxiety, says Kahneman.  And he has the experiments to prove it—if you can make your way through his 499 page tome. (I am now on page 63.)