{"id":127854,"date":"2015-08-31T23:49:36","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T05:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/31\/the-slippery-nature-of-objective-reality.html"},"modified":"2015-09-15T06:51:11","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T12:51:11","slug":"the-slippery-nature-of-objective-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/31\/the-slippery-nature-of-objective-reality.html","title":{"rendered":"The slippery nature of objective reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans (and surrounding Louisiana) in 2005.<\/p>\n

George W. Bush was President of the United States between 2001 to 2009.<\/p>\n

Barack Obama assumed office in January of 2009.<\/p>\n

No, really, you can look up those dates on the Internet. Or even in books.<\/p>\n

2005 is literally in the middle<\/i> of 2001 and 2009. <\/p>\n

And, yet, a Public Policy Polling survey in 2013 (yeah, it's bouncing around the Internet right now, but it was in 2013) …<\/p>\n

'PPP surveyed 721 Louisiana voters, including an oversample of 274 usual Republican primary voters, between August 16-19, 2013. The margin of error for the overall survey was +\/- 3.7% and +\/- 5.9% for the GOP portion. This poll was not authorized or paid for by any campaign or political organization. PPP’s surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews.'<\/i><\/p>\n

… found that, overall, when asked "Who do you think was more responsible for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina: George W.<\/b>
Bush or Barack Obama?"<\/b> the surveyed good people of Louisiana responded:<\/p>\n

28% George W Bush
29% Barack Obama
44% Not Sure<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.publicpolicypolling.com\/pdf\/2011\/PPP_Release_LA_821.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Breaking those numbers down, only when you get to "Moderate" voters do you get more "Not Sure" than (correctly) George Bush. By the time you drift to the "Very Conservative" column, the responses are:<\/p>\n

17% George W Bush
36% Barack Obama
47% Not Sure<\/p>\n

People sometimes wonder "How is it that people will vote against their interests for some schmuck who does't give a rat's patootie about their well-being?" The answer seems obvious: serious cognitive distortion. I mean, even if you think the Bush Administration response to Katrina wasn't, in fact, "poor," at most that should bump up the "Not Sure" answer. That over a third<\/i> of very conservative Louisianans believe that Time Traveling Fake President Barack Obama invaded the White House four years early and messed up the FEMA response to Katrina …<\/p>\n

… simply indicates a desperate, desperate disconnect with reality by a substantial portion of the American public. God help us all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans (and surrounding Louisiana) in 2005. George W. Bush was President of the United States between 2001 to 2009. Barack Obama assumed office in January of 2009. No, really, you can look up those dates on the Internet. Or even in books. 2005 is literally in the middle of 2001 and … Continue reading “The slippery nature of objective reality”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,54,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-elections-2008","category-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Storm5B15D.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25622,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/20\/fact-checking-on-the-internet.html","url_meta":{"origin":127854,"position":0},"title":"Fact-checking on the Internet","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Jan-12 5:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Of course, fact-checking is only as good as the sources you go to and trust. Still, I think there's at least some value in the idea that all but the oldest voters are going online and checking on election information they got from traditional media sources. #ddtbReshared post from +Google\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38533,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/21\/barack-obama-atheistic-kenyan-communist-time-traveler.html","url_meta":{"origin":127854,"position":1},"title":"Barack Obama: Atheistic Kenyan Communist TIME TRAVELER!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Aug-13 1:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"At least that's what one presumes, since when Louisiana GOPers were asked \"Who do you think was more responsible for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina?,\" 28% answered George W. Bush, 29% Barack Obama, and 33% Unsure.\u00a0Crikey.Now, perhaps, they think that the first three years of the federal response --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12843,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/18\/databases_are_not_stone_t.html","url_meta":{"origin":127854,"position":2},"title":"Databases are not Stone Tablets from God","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Sep-08 9:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"But governments sure like to think of them that way. Once they have a database built, no matter how many problems they have, the data is considered sacred, and...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/voting-butterfly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":131277,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/16\/trump-is-winning-over-his-supporters-from-reality.html","url_meta":{"origin":127854,"position":3},"title":"Trump is winning over his supporters from reality","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Aug-16 1:41am","format":false,"excerpt":"A new Public Policy Polling survey of North Carolina voters is out:http:\/\/www.publicpolicypolling.com\/main\/2016\/08\/clinton-leads-in-nc-for-first-time-since-march.htmlPart of what's fascinating about it is what it says about North Carolina Trump supporters. _69% of Trump voters think that if Hillary Clinton wins the election it will be because it was rigged, to only 16% who think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/maxresdefault5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/maxresdefault5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/maxresdefault5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31430,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/20\/and-so-louisiana-sinks-into-the-primordial-swamp-of-ignorance.html","url_meta":{"origin":127854,"position":4},"title":"And so Louisiana sinks into the primordial swamp\u00a0of ignorance","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 20-Nov-12 9:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"But at least they'll know how to pray for help. Embedded Link Here Is What Louisiana Schoolchildren Learn About Evolution Fifth graders in some state-sponsored schools in Louisiana study both creationism and evolution as competing theories . \"Fact or Theory?\" Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8665,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/09\/12\/an_early_and_th.html","url_meta":{"origin":127854,"position":5},"title":"An early (and thus probably contra-indicated) prediction","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Sep-05 7:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"It is indeed possible to argue that some of the broader accusations regarding the Katrina disaster are poorly founded (that the hurricane was caused by the Bush refusal to sign...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128019,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127854\/revisions\/128019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}