"Well, East Coast girls are hip
I really dig those styles they wear
And the Southern girls with the way they talk
They knock me out when I'm down there
The Midwest farmer's daughters. . . ."
The Beach Boys, California Girls, 1965
Sometimes the smallest things can make a political point.
We hear what we want to hear.
Today's Guest Post makes a point about confirmation bias. We translate what we hear into our own frames of reference. In our information silos the medium edits and filters for us, but in fact we also do it by ourselves and for ourselves. We take a word like "east" or "south" and put it into our context.
Gerald Murphy encountered this political reality by accident. He is a prolific content creator. He had dashed off a ditty for one of the scores of plays, songs, and musicals he has written. His shows have been performed in over 20 countries. He is a retired high school English teacher. He tells his story below.
Nobody Knows Everything
I’ve written a lot of songs in my life. At least two hundred. My best song was written for a musical I put together for the Siskiyou Performing Arts Center in Yreka. The show was called “The Sex King of Siskiyou County,” and it was an unqualified success for a few 1978 weekends in my small California mountain town. The best song was called “Nobody Knows Everything.”
Here are the lyrics:I think the people from way back east are the people I love the least.
They think they know everything; they think they know everything.[Chorus:
Nobody knows everything like why the birdies sing.
Like why the sky is blue, and why I love you!]And the people from way down south, they kinda suffer from motor mouth/
They think they know everything; they think they know everything. – [repeat chorus]
But the people I love the best are the ones from the great northwest.
You can give them any test; they don’t know anything.
[repeat chorus to end]The song was meant as a filler, and it was written, like almost every successful song I’ve ever written, with lightning speed – maybe fifteen minutes.
Notice that I began with the geographical themes of east and south but failed to find suitable rhymes for “north” and “west,” so I combined north and west. Pure songwriting laziness. Also, the verse on the south suggests southerners have motor mouths. A fitting description of New Yorkers maybe, but I have met very few fast-talking southerners. Also, do I really dislike everyone from "back east"? I was born and raised in Philly, for God’s sake!
The chorus for this song is so insipid and brainless that it deserves no mention.
Yet, despite all these obvious flaws, the song received prolonged laughter and applause each night.
I think I know why now. Friends who heard the song assumed I meant “Los Angeles” or “San Francisco” when my song mentions "way down south.” And they assumed I meant the whole country east of the Sierras when I write “back east.” Also, they knew that the last line was a put down of people living in the city of Yreka (and other people from "the great northwest,”) but they laughed to show what great sports they were. “We can even take it when you mock us because we know you couldn’t possible mean it.”
They gave me a free ride. Heck, they lauded my shallow efforts, some even suggesting my song was "pure genius." How could someone so brilliant write a stupid song?
Likewise, I suspect that some of Trump’s admirers give him a free ride because he couldn’t possibly be as stupid as he sounds. After all, he graduated from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He has his name on all those buildings and wrote that best seller. How could he be stupid? Can’t you see the simple truth? He’s a genius.
His admirers forgive even his most moronic statements and outrageous lies, like when he claims to have a great relationship with African Americans: “I just have great respect for them. And they like me."
Or when he claims he loves women and then says this about Arianna Huffington: [She] “is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man. He made a good decision."
Here is Donald discussing his own bodily pulchritude: “My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”
I could go on and on here, of course, but nothing he says, no matter how moronic, will dissuade his admirers from their confirmation bias. Is there any hope here? Is there some magic series of events which will help his followers see the light?
I doubt it. Not only do I doubt it, but I know I have my own liberal confirmation biases. I dismiss problems with our southern border. I accept doubtful slogans like "defund the police." I spend hours each day watching MSNBC and CNN, while mocking Fox viewers.
But I do have one saving grace. Unlike conservatives and MAGA extremists, I am right. I am right and I know I am right. The other guys are intellectually lacking, racist, bigoted. But I am warm and sweet and loving. You can go to the east, to the south, and even the great northwest and you will never meet such a wonderfully unbiased soul.
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17 comments:
Reminds me of an old Buffalo Springfield song you can still hear occasionally in Food-4-Less:
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong…
What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side."
It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down.
Gerald used to drop by an OLLI class I was taking and grace us with his latest political ditty. Very 'woke.' If your confirmation bias is warped enough, you might consider that derogatory, but I’m sure he’d take it as a compliment. Thank you, Gerald, for your usual wit and wisdom.
Yeah, we are all the same. We all worship and support a traitorous, criminal, blatantly racist and misogynistic sexual predator and malignant narcissist. Yup, we're all stupid and clueless and we don't even realize it! Thank you for informing the rest of us intellectual losers.
Thank God for this blog. We need people like you and Peter Sage to save us from our own stupidity. What were we thinking? We are all MAGA. This is an incredible revelation. Bless you and his honor, The Sage.
Using the word blind or blindness in a derogatory manner is an insult to people who are fully or partially blind. Also the words deaf, lame, crippled, cretin, etc. Our language reflects that our culture is highly ableist and ageist.
I like to remind people that they will not be young and healthy forever. Do they want to be treated like a useless waste product when they get older or get sick or injured?
This seems like a good opportunity to remind readers that FDR was stricken with a serious paralytic illness in 1921 at the age of 39. Later he became one of the most consequential presidents in US history. Apparently President Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression. President George W. Bush had had a drinking problem. President Kennedy also had serious health challenges. I could go on, but I think that is enough to make the point.
We each live on top of our own hill. When we look out at the world, we each see it from our own different perspective. We see things that are hidden from others, and don’t see things that are invisible from where we are.
If we visited someone else’s hill, we would see what they see. We might not agree with conclusions they draw from what they see, but at least we would have a common starting point.
But that’s not what we typically do. Instead, we argue about what we see without ever realizing or acknowledging that the view is different for others.
Less fighting and more visiting might lead to better results.
Gerald's spontaneous lyric writing style and discussion is the best, to date, explanation of MAGA Trump supporters behavior towards whatever Trump says. Yesterday we learned from Peter to watch behavior and to dismiss our projections on their thinking and motives. The two posts taken together gives legs to action, whether it be, how to campaign or how to govern. Imagine where the Congress would be now if Joe Biden had reacted to MTG's comments during the State of the Union as a personal affront? We'd be stuck in a tit-for-tat between the White House and the Congress, not a good way to legislate or govern. Thanks Gerald.
Sorry to say, but this blog has really gone down hill. Also a lot of repetition.
My suggestion is to take the summer off and re-charge your batteries. Then come back swinging in the fall. Another idea is to publish only one blog per week until fall, unless there is something very important to write about.
Enjoy the summer. You deserve a break. Your readers will return.
I like Peter’s daily posts. I would be happy to see Peter continue with them.
We should take full advantage of his interest in doing this work before some national media outfit snaps him up.
Maybe also try to recruit a more diverse group of guest bloggers. Thanks
Agree 110% MT!
I agree Peter should take some time off. He should take the next 3 months off and sit down and write a book. Then appear on Bill Maher, then on CNN and MSNBC to discuss his NYT best selling book.
Don't worry. If Curt Angerburger's obscenities and threats don't intimidate Peter, you can be sure that he won't be dissuaded from writing by anonymous snark. I expect he'll move on in his own good time, as we all do.
Anon, whoever you may be, imagine how easy it would be for YOU to take a three month hiatus from this downhill moving blog!
I normally don’t comment on commenters (per Peter’s instructions) but couldn’t help it. For those who are don’t like what Peter or his guests write, you can click elsewhere. Nobody makes you read it. Or if you dare, you can offer your own original insightful ideas for others to critique.
As for Gerald’s ditty and essay- fun and insightful. Thank you for writing and Peter for posting.
MT, Although I very rarely agree with you, this particular post hosts a grand slam home run. Kudos.
If indeed you do support the last guy, WHY? this is a serious question.
The terms (conditions) cited are colloquially used and unfortunately commonly understood shorthand descriptors of failure of perception or ability. They certainly covey a generally understood opinion of another's willing or ingrained actions or behaviors in place of common vulgarities shch as of SOB, AH or DF.
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