OCTOBER 1 — One of my friends once told me that he would only believe in God if he received a million ringgit, a beautiful wife, a bungalow, etc. At this point, my other friend said, “Even if you got those things, how do you know God isn’t planning to harm you in the future?”
I swear I didn’t see that coming. I naively believed that should “blessings” come, people will readily believe in God. In other words, facts can decide faith.
Anyway, that exchange is always at the back of my mind when I come across heated debates (usually politics, but also about religion, culture etc) where both sides seem to be living in different worlds.
For most people, their prior beliefs and ideals have already pre-decided the outcome of any debate. Thus, giving these folks more data and information (even those which don’t support their beliefs) only serves to reinforce said beliefs even more.
Devotion (to a faith, ideology, ideal, creed, party) trumps data.
Take the recent case of Christine Blasey Ford accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school. It illustrates the futility of “facts” against what people already believe.
US politics is one arena where no matter how much argument and data are put forth, people mostly decide squarely within their own party lines (see Note 1).
What follows is a kind of blow-by-blow account where I try to show how evidence and information are seamlessly interpreted according to which side you root for. This is important especially for folks who still think that the answer is “so obvious.”
Here we go:
For the Democrats, the mere fact that Kavanaugh is “credibly accused” (whatever that means) is proof that he shouldn’t be on the Supreme Court.
On this item, the Republicans (or GOP, see Note 2) will sing the “innocent until proven guilty” anthem until the cows come home (or until “reasonable doubt” of his guilt can be put aside).
The Democrats, in line with the #metoo movement, respond that such a mentality reflects the “systematic oppression of half the world’s population”, of the casual attitude that the patriarchal male chauvinistic mindset has towards rape and sexually assaulting women.
The GOP, in turn, highlights how #metoo has become weaponised as a tool for the Democrats, such that any man’s reputation and career can be destroyed over a single unprovable accusation about an event that happened a very long time ago (in Kavanaugh’s case, when he was 17 or more than 30 years ago).
They’d also highlight the suspiciously similar profile of #metoo victims i.e. they’re usually right-leaning guys. How many leftists screamed murder when Justin Trudeau or even Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn were in #metoo-related trouble?
Ideology beats information. Two people/parties can look at the exact same “thing” and come to polar opposite conclusions.
The Democrats ask how a woman can ever prove that she was sexually assaulted, especially if it happened many years ago or behind closed doors.
It would appear that the justice system, at least in this case, favours sexual predators. It doesn’t help that in many traumatic cases (rape certainly qualifying as ‘traumatic’), the victims’ memories create “gaps” in the narrative as a kind of psychical protection.
The GOP, of course, sees this as even less reason to convict an accused person, and in Kavanaughs’ case, zoom in on the dubious nature of the charges and how the evidence presented (so far) doesn’t seem to fly.
At least from what I’ve read, it seems clear that none of Kavanaugh’s or Ford’s classmates at Yale can (credibly?) corroborate the latter’s accusation.
Ford said that Kavanaugh assaulted her at this particular party but a) nobody can remember Kavanaugh being at such a party and b) nobody can remember there being this kind of party in the first place and c) it seems Ford herself isn’t (or wasn’t initially) 100 per cent sure that it was Kavanaugh who assaulted her.
Whatever the case, Never-Trumpers will remain steadfast in their conviction that Kavanaugh is 100 per cent guilty.
Creed over case? Paradigm over proof?
Imagine if Ford’s charges could be corroborated; the GOP will simply seek to discredit the corroborating witnesses. Or imagine if Ford’s very good friend came forward and said she’s the kind who’s always making dubious statements and having hallucinations; the Democrats will just attack this friend and insist that Ford is not mistaken this time, won’t they?
But, well, the fact is that the evidence against Kavanaugh can’t be corroborated (for now). The Democrats generally brush this aside and highlight how Ford would have no reason to lie, how she passed a polygraph test, and how she keeps requesting for an FBI investigation and, c’mon, aren’t there now two other women charging Kavanaugh with assault?
At this point, of course, the GOP is crying foul-play because isn’t it clear that the Democrats, knowing how Ford’s case against Kavanuagh is crumbling, are resorting to (desperately) pushing forward more and more accusers? And aren’t all these accusations rather “timely”?
The Democrats’ response is that, well, an accusation is an accusation. The fact that Kavanaugh has multiple accusations of sexual assault against him (plus the fact that he was nominated by Donald Trump, himself accused of sexual assault by many women) means he isn’t fit to be on the Supreme Court.
The FBI must investigate Ford’s claims (and, in doing so, delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court). The GOP reminds everyone that the FBI has already conducted background checks on Kavanaugh six times with no fault found. The Democrats say too bad, FBI re-open investigations all the time.
Popper to the rescue
This is where we absolutely need the wisdom of people like Karl Popper, who said that we should only take a theory or point of view seriously if it can be falsified.
Translated into US politics, the question both the GOP and Democrats have to ask is how precisely their minds could be changed. I guess if the US senators are honest, most or all of them will never change their minds no matter what transpires.
The on-going controversy hit a peak in the hearing cum testimony from both Ford and Kavanaugh on Thursday night. As expected, the Democrats promoted Ford’s courage for speaking out, whereas the GOP reminded everyone that her accusation cannot be corroborated and that it is, in fact, Kavanaugh who’s the brave one here.
If you’re pro-Kavanaugh, you’d be moved by how his 10-year-old daughter said his family should pray for Ford. If you’re pro-Ford, you’d claim that’s a sleazy tactic.
And on Friday Donald Trump ordered the seventh FBI investigation into Kavanaugh; immediately he and the GOP are accused of hypocrisy (because, so the argument goes, Sentor Jeff Flake made his “Yes” vote conditional upon an investigation done). That’s the pro-Democrat line. The pro-GOP line is, essentially, Democrats will damn us if the investigation isn’t on and damn us if it is.
The amusing thing about this controversy is that both sides keep insisting that they are not being partisan, they are being purely objective, and that “now is the time to stop the politics.”
Your story matters, not the facts
At almost every point, if you’re staunchly pro-Democrat (or anti-Trump) you’ll be shaking your head and condemning a system in which sexual assault victims’ voices are silenced or rendered suspect and their assaulters elevated to high positions.
If you’re pro-Republican (or anti-liberal) you’ll be shaking your head and asking how a community can function when political losers can launch baseless allegations against innocent people.
It won’t matter how “thin” or shaky Ford’s case against Kavanaugh is, if you’re pro-Democrat you’ve already concluded he’s a rapist and anyone who objects is branded a misogynist for life.
Likewise, if you’re pro-Trump, the very fact that Ford’s accusation comes so close to SCOTUS nomination time is proof that it’s politically motivated and she’s in fact the anti-GOP predator.
Democrats: “Kavanaugh can brag about raping Ford and people like Trump would still support him!”
GOP: “Ford can declare that she was mistaken about Kavanaugh and the Democrats will still label him a rapist!”
The facts don’t matter. What matters is which story, which narrative, you’ve aligned yourself to.
The Democrats/liberal story involves resisting the three main “isms”: racism, sexism, fascism. It’s about fighting for the under-privileged and the powerless.
Clearly, the Democrats paint the Republicans as precisely the party which endorses everything they hate i.e. the GOP is essentially a bunch of white racists protecting their privileges.
Republicans, on the other hand, inhabit a story in which strong religious leaders protect businesses, families and working people from harm and poverty. In classic tit-for-tat, the Republicans see the Democrats as embodying everything wrong with America, with all their talk about regulations, abortion and sexual freedom.
Thing is, every story comes with a light and dark side. Two people can hear the same story but one sees the good and another can see only the diabolical.
Democrats: Kavanaugh should quit the SCOTUS nomination given all these accusations.
GOP: Kavanaugh deserves to be on SCOTUS precisely because he’s fought against these false allegations. (see Note 3)
It’s not about the facts. It’s about the paradigm-lens we use to “read” the facts. So the big question is: What lens are you wearing? When was the last time you took them off the lens to inspect and clean it?
Note 1: Other big issues include Israel-Palestine, Religion-Atheism, BN-PH (just read the way BN cyber-troopers talk about the 1MDB scandal; amusing as hell).
Note 2: The Republicans are also known as the “Grand Old Party” (GOP).
Note 3: I wrote this on Saturday morning. It’s not impossible, I guess, for some new fact to come along which changes many people’s minds (akin to a religion conversion) but, hey, don’t bet your last buck on it.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
