October 31, 2001
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:Repetition <> truth, exploring "Repetistics"
On the heels my earlier posts on the baseless "140 days of oil" claim about the ANWR, I asked about the related claim that it would take seven years to extract the oil. One reader wrote to me to point out that this analysis likely makes generous allowances for the time needed to fight legal battles over the planned exploration. This is somewhat circular - you shouldn't explore in the ANWR because it will take a long time, it will take a long time because we will fight you in court, and we will fight you in court because..you shouldn't explore in the ANWR. An analogy: A mugger would say it is dangerous to resist him because he will hurt you if you do.
Anyway, it got me to thinking that I should dedicate some time to discussing "repetistics", or questionable little factoids and illogic that are accepted as truth through simple repetition and form the soft logical underbelly of conventional wisdom. Do send me others you come across.
Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at October 31, 2001 09:51 AM | Technorati inbound links