CSotD: The Distance between Hanlon and Hegel
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Tom Toles with a commentary on the battle between truth and popularity.
It reminds me of "Anything But Love," a short-lived sitcom that paired Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis as employees of a weekly magazine where, Lewis's character suggested, the motto was not "Everything that fits, we print" but "Anything that's hip, we print."
Which in turn reminds me of the self-immolation of newspapers that began to refer to themselves in print as "dead tree papers" when that became a hip phrase.
Which in turn brings us to our current situation, in which, as Toles suggests, slipshod journalism has empowered the anti-truth forces with which we are burdened.
A major problem with newspapers confronting their own shortcomings is that the anti-truthers have already staked out some important ground, which is "They All Do It" and "Anything For Ratings (or Sales)," in defiance of Hanlon's Razor, which states "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
The result is that, when newspapers do question their coverage, it's seen by the tinfoil brigade as confirmation, rather than confrontation, of bias, because they have already assumed that the malice exists.
Based on my experience in the media, I don't see a lot of malice but, well, I do see a lot of confirmation of Hanlon, though it's less outright "stupidity" than lack of perspective.
I don't think any newspaper editor (at least, aside from those at supermarket tabloids, which aren't newspapers), says "This story — though I know it's not true — will sell a million copies and make our company a whole lot of money."
They do, however, get excited over an exciting story and worry more about keeping up with their competitors than about getting a second source and confirming before you print and assessing relative importance rather than potential impact.
That's not a conspiracy.
As I used to explain it to high school students, rather, it's like a musician who would rather play to a stadium crowd than to a small, intimate coffeehouse.
Success in that goal has to stem, at least in part, from intrinsic instincts rather than a deliberate decision: Leonard Cohen would, no doubt, have written the same songs he wrote whether he was "discovered" by audiences or not, while the writers of Top 40 piffle would not be able to turn around and compose the sorts of dark, introspective things he did.
Or, to put it another way, cream is not the only thing that floats to the top.
Speaking of which, I mentioned the other day an Ann Telnaes cartoon that sent me to Google News to confirm that the apparent nonsense depicted was factual, and John Branch has done it to me again with this stunning example of how Hanlon's Razor neglects the possibility that malice and stupidity can work together.
This account in the Houston Chronicle confirms Branch's suggestion that Patrick has deliberately set out to recreate the North Carolina disaster, facing a problem that doesn't exist with a solution that couldn't possibly work for the simple pleasure of throwing meat to a slavering mob.
And, y'know, making America great again.
In terms of malice, it's noteworthy that, in his proposal, he exempts the sports and concert venues that caused North Carolina so much economic blowback, apparently because he assumes those organizations are as openly cynical and malicious as he is.
A few months ago, I'd have laughed it off as something that could never happen, but, well, I'm not so overconfident anymore.
As noted, the problem with Hanlon's Razor is the assumption that malice and stupidity are separate things when experience teaches us that they are closely allied.
Including recent experience, as Walt Handelsman reminds us, in what is more of a chronicle than a commentary. Sometimes the most devastating attack you can make is to simply report the facts.
In this case, there's nothing alarming about Trump's inability to process facts or his willingness to say things that clearly do not stand up to a moment's scrutiny.
It's his ability to do so and reach a substantial number of like-minded people that ought to scare the hell out of all of us.
The only problem being that "all of us" seem pretty evenly divided between thoughtful people and malicious morons.
And then Darrin Bell sends me back to Google News by cartooning about something so ridiculously improbable that … oh god it's true.
An example not of Hanlon so much as of Hegel: "We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
Here's your moment of Love It or Leave It zen
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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