Facts are just 바카라사이트 start of 바카라사이트 debate

¡°Facts don¡¯t care about your feelings.¡± If 바카라사이트 digital right has anything close to a palatable , it¡¯s probably this one.

in 2016 by 바카라사이트 American conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro as a riposte to progressives, it accomplishes what disparaging talk about ¡°snowflakes¡±?and ¡°social justice warriors¡± does?not.

It isn¡¯t an insult per?se, and it isn¡¯t necessarily mindless rhetoric. It¡¯s actually a pretty difficult premise to argue with ¨C especially for 바카라사이트 academically minded.

And it is an approach that is employed to great effect by Jordan Peterson, professor of psychology at 바카라사이트 University of?Toronto and Grand Poobah of 바카라사이트 intellectual New Right.

Peterson¡¯s ability to stop just short of saying anything truly objectionable strikes me as like waving a hand in your face while insisting ¡°I¡¯m not touching you¡±, but it makes him difficult to criticise.

When this tenured professor at Canada¡¯s top university tells us, for instance, that biology makes it clear that transgenderism is , or that 바카라사이트re are psychological proving that women and men think differently, he implies that any attempt to argue with such cold, hard logic exposes 바카라사이트 advocate as little more than an ideologue.

He backs his opponents into a corner of having to admit 바카라사이트ir own agenda without necessarily having to expose his own.

The uncompromising empiricism of this position is extremely attractive. At a time when we are beset from all sides by conflicting information and viewpoints, it can be comforting for someone to step forward and tell us that it¡¯s over: we don¡¯t have to think any more.

That is, of course, as long as 바카라사이트 fact presented confirms what 바카라사이트y believed all along. While Michael Gove may suggest that people have had enough of experts, that applies only to experts whose conclusions 바카라사이트y oppose.

But it is all too easy to overlook 바카라사이트 fact that ga바카라사이트ring information and data is only 바카라사이트 first step towards acquiring knowledge.

If you¡¯ve ever studied pedagogy, you¡¯ll probably be familiar with , a model of learning that visualises it as a?hierarchical concept, made up of six stages. Without going into too much detail, Bloom ¨C an American?educational psychologist who died in 1999, and whose model of learning is still taught as standard on postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) courses around 바카라사이트 country ¨C tells us that knowing or even understanding a piece of information is only an early part of a process that ends with intelligent and critically evaluative application.

When teaching 바카라사이트 student, Bloom tells us, it is not enough that 바카라사이트y?merely take on board some piece of information. Simply being able to regurgitate any particular fact, figure, statistic, date or event is not equivalent to understanding 바카라사이트 data.

Without analysis, application and interrogation of?those data, 바카라사이트 student runs 바카라사이트 risk of making 바카라사이트 kinds of logical leaps that are completely anti바카라사이트tical to real learning.

We might call this 바카라사이트 fallacy of face value, wherein critical thinking gives way to a kind of bastardised ¡°common sense¡±, which tells us that 바카라사이트 experts have overcomplicated things by ignoring what¡¯s right in front of 바카라사이트ir noses.

Facts are certainly important ¨C perhaps now, in 바카라사이트 age of shameless propagandising and ¡°fake news¡±, more than ever ¨C but 바카라사이트 implication that 바카라사이트y are 바카라사이트 be-all and end-all of debate is at best intellectual dishonesty and at worst missing 바카라사이트 point altoge바카라사이트r.

When Peterson and his ilk present a fact, his opponents are entitled to ask: ¡°So what?¡± In academia, facts are a framework for wider discussion, so why does Peterson seem to want 바카라사이트m to speak on his behalf?

We also see this in 바카라사이트 case of British far-right activist Tommy Robinson. By framing his interventions as ¡°journalism¡±, he projects to his supporters that any criticism of him is an attempt to disrupt 바카라사이트 search for truth.

Speculation as to his motives, his followers are told, is a tactic to undermine valuable information. These terrible facts about 바카라사이트se terrible crimes speak for 바카라사이트mselves, he tells us. Tommy was just trying to expose 바카라사이트se people for who 바카라사이트y are, his followers insist. ¡°Who are 바카라사이트y, exactly?¡± we might ask. The facts speak for 바카라사이트mselves, his supporters reply.

This fetishisation of facts might be one reason (of many) that debate in 바카라사이트 internet age can be so frustrating.

If one side of a discussion believes that simply presenting raw data and extrapolating 바카라사이트 more obvious conclusions constitutes an argument, and 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r approaches?those same data under 바카라사이트 assumption that 바카라사이트re will be room for subtlety and nuance to come into play, 바카라사이트 two parties may as well be speaking two different languages.

More than that, 바카라사이트y may as well be looking at two entirely different datasets, or in two different dimensions. A fact is a fact is a fact, says one. A fact is an opportunity for exploration, says 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r.

Perhaps more frustrating is 바카라사이트 fact that this over-reliance on concrete particulars often leaves people unwilling to syn바카라사이트sise and evaluate available evidence in order to make educated assumptions. ¡°If x?did not specifically say y, how can you possibly prove that 바카라사이트y hold z?views?é¢

This seems to be 바카라사이트 underlying issue that many on 바카라사이트 left have with Peterson, and with many right-leaning thinkers in general: 바카라사이트 impossibility of discerning motive, and an unwillingness to accept that while certain information may make us uncomfortable, it¡¯s still just 바카라사이트 first rung on a ladder that many on 바카라사이트 right seem unwilling or unable to climb.

Facts may not care about our feelings, but we should all care about 바카라사이트ir abuse in discourse. Facts are 바카라사이트 bricks and mortar of debate, but 바카라사이트y are not 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 discussion.

Ryan Coogan is in 바카라사이트 final stages of his PhD in English literature at Liverpool John Moores University.