There has been a fair amount of conversation around the concept of bias recently, so instead of commenting elsewhere I thought I'd throw a few observations out here.
1. Our entire legal system is based on the presumption that reasonable people are able to exert enough control over their biases to be able to be able to make all sorts of critical life altering decisions.
2. When a group of protesters is so committed to a narrative that is not supported by facts and evidence, that they insist of punishing people for reasons of race or position, that seems like a heaping helping of bias to me.
3. When a convicted sex offender is involved in the writing of a bill that allows him and people like him more access to the people they prey on, that also seems like the gentleman in question just might be a bit biased.
I'm sure that there will be other examples to come, but for now how about we all admit that it's possible to control ones bias and make reasonable conclusions, while at the same time realizing that allowing ones bias to embrace something contrary to the evidence or that might harm others is not good.
2 comments:
I would wager that there is little disagreement over what bias is or what it looks like in theory. Ironically, however, there is a distinctly biased opinion about a particular manifestation of bias actually being an example of bias.
You mean the theory that bias is only a problem if it doesn't support your opinion?
Post a Comment