Another political commonplace
Sep. 4th, 2003 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
womzillaAvedon pointed to Two Glasses, a fair and balanced political blog. Not much exceptional there, although it had a pointer to what looks like a good Joe Conason piece from the Nation about the potential return of the "compassionate conservativism" lie.
But one thing was quite good, if slightly clumsy: a new acronym, "BSATSS":
This is not a new observation, but pointing out that it's so common that it needs a name is a good breakthrough.
Both sides aren't the same. Yes, Democrats lie. Republicans lie more, and about more things. Yes, Democrats abuse power to help their political allies. The Republicans are betraying every principle that the US has ever stood for, even the bad ones, to siphon money from the poorest 99% into the pockets of the richest 1%. They're not the same.
A related syndrome is, of course, the TISIM fallacy--"The Truth Is Somewhere In the Middle". TwoGlasses discusses that, but doesn't name it, in the post in which BSATS Syndrome is identified. Here, it's grounded in a much- (and justly-) derided Jack Shafer review of Al Franken's new book (the famous Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them), which concludes:
Twoglasses responds,
If I say 2 + 2 equals 12, and you say 2+2 equals 5, TISIM tells us that we should assume that the real answer is somewhere between 6 and 11, probably right around 9. That's no way to run a candy store; why should we assume that it's a way to run political discourse?
But one thing was quite good, if slightly clumsy: a new acronym, "BSATSS":
The fact is that this is just the latest example of a particularly virulent meme which is sweeping the nation: BSATSS. It's short for "Both-Sides-Are-The-Same Syndrome", and it's something I'll post a separate piece on at some point. Basically, rather than use their critical faculties to evaluate the claims of the two sides in an argument, the BSATSS-afflicted listener focuses on the form of the argument -- the apparent symmetry of the claims each side is making about the other -- and prematurely concludes that "both sides" are equally self-serving. Or despicable. Or predictably partisan. Or whatever. It's a particularly disheartening form of intellectual laziness, and while anyone can be infected by it, this meme seems to have it in for American journalists.
This is not a new observation, but pointing out that it's so common that it needs a name is a good breakthrough.
Both sides aren't the same. Yes, Democrats lie. Republicans lie more, and about more things. Yes, Democrats abuse power to help their political allies. The Republicans are betraying every principle that the US has ever stood for, even the bad ones, to siphon money from the poorest 99% into the pockets of the richest 1%. They're not the same.
A related syndrome is, of course, the TISIM fallacy--"The Truth Is Somewhere In the Middle". TwoGlasses discusses that, but doesn't name it, in the post in which BSATS Syndrome is identified. Here, it's grounded in a much- (and justly-) derided Jack Shafer review of Al Franken's new book (the famous Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them), which concludes:
"I suppose that when consuming liar-liar books in pairs, say Sean Hannity's versus Joe Conason's, the average reader might come within spitting distance of political reality.
Twoglasses responds,
Puh-fucking-lease! Conason is an accomplished investigative journalist, Jack. Hannity is a hack talking-head for the Republican Party's own Pravda network. As the editor of Slate, you damn well know that.
If I say 2 + 2 equals 12, and you say 2+2 equals 5, TISIM tells us that we should assume that the real answer is somewhere between 6 and 11, probably right around 9. That's no way to run a candy store; why should we assume that it's a way to run political discourse?
