Your posting is a great opportunity to exercise critical thinking. Who are the "fact checkers"? Both sides of the political aisles have cadres of these "checkers" who devote their time to finding supposed errors in the other sides candidates and supposed factual statements in their own. How many times have we see a "pants on fire" rating given out only to be countered by letters to the editor or guest editorials presenting a whole new set of "facts". Fact checking may have been useful for the reader in its early stages, but it has disintegrated into just another political tool in the bag of tricks used by both sides.
Bob at PC
________________________________________
From: Phys-l [phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] on behalf of John Clement [clement@hal-pc.org]
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 1:27 AM
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: [Phys-L] Critical Thinking [Was: strange things in chem book]
Even getting a PhD does not promote critical thinking very well. I know a
teacher who got his PhD in history. He then passed on some of the really
outrageous E-mail scams which purported to expose dangerous things. Notice
how critical thinking is handled by many politicians. When the fact
checkers show that they are absolutely incorrect, they attempt to discredit
the fact checkers. Of course facts do matter, but making the correct
connection between them is also important. But it is possible to lie about
facts and convince people when the lie conforms to their existing paradigm.