Uninformed vs Misinformed

[mjr]

This would be things like global warming's causses that aren't up for scientific debate.

It's the only science that's settled.

Misinformed results in conservatives or liberals thinking they have more in common with foreign powers, etc. And misinformed often creates easy scapegoats that solve nothing.

True, but additionally the misinformation can come directly from the elected official or candidate themselves -- sometimes with no real way to verify it. If challenger Tom Johnson says, "Incumbent John Smith likes to kick puppies", that may or may not be true. Unless there's concrete evidence that John Smith actually does kick puppies, we really don't know. And John Smith may be a perfectly nice gentleman who volunteered in his community, helps little old ladies cross the street, rescues kittens from trees, and ran a mentoring program before he was elected.

The world is complex and it's perfectly OK if as an elector you choose to defer to the opinions of someone like Grover Norquist or James Carville.

Fair. But I'm sure you'd agree it's not necessarily a good thing to defer to the opinion of Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, or Ted Nugent.

What's NOT ok, is to not acknowledge that that is being done through ignorance/convenience and then become more rigid when those people are proved wrong. That's really the problem.

Well, yeah, I agree with you, but I would also like to add that saying it's OK because the other guy did it isn't acceptable either. And we've all done that at some point, I think. Basically, though, some don't criticize because "everyone does it". I know I've been guilty of that from time to time.

Also, pointing the finger at the other party and screaming "LIAR!!" (or several other epithets) because we hear something we don't like doesn't help either.

I've been having a great discussion via email with a friend of mine. The topic of "truth" came up, and he made an awesome point. It basically boils down to that the truth has been bastardized so much (including facts) that it's getting harder to distinguish what the truth actually is.