I agree, but it's not just in the political arena that people pick and
choose what they want. This same attitude occurs with facts from any
subject area. People beleive the ones that support their beliefs and
disbelieve the ones that conflict with their belief. Even on a supposedly
enlightened list such as this one, I see no difference in the way people
absorb ideas they wish to be true and reject ideas they hope aren't true.
Virtually everybody joins a "cult", and viretually every "cult" claims that
it is different and more realistic. People believe what they choose to
believe, and like to claim that facts support their belief. But somehow,
everybody seems to find a group that is totally objective, that also
believes what they have always believed. Religious followers find their
religion, Sci-Fi fans find their futurist groups, political types find
their political agenda groups, etc.
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Harvey Newstrom (harv@gate.net)