Is Cherry Picking a "Conservative" Phenomenon?

[BOSSHOG]

Most members of the party of integrity and honesty pick and choose intelligence information to support and enhance our reasons for starting the Republican party's war in Iraq; and ignore those facts which are an inconvenience.

Many "christians" amongst us pick and choose in the bible passages which justify their hate in the name of Jesus Christ and ignore the passages which they find inconvenient.

I'm just outraged. By the way "christians," don't fuck with my constitution. I'm all for another civil war. Theocracy vs Democracy, do ahead arm yourselves.

[elehhhhna]

1. It's a business technique that's infected politics/policy.

Thank the stupid MBA President

[Sammy Pepys]

2. Naw...everyone cherry picks. n/t

...

[JuniperLea]

3. Pft... no way

Everyone does it. People here do it! I've seen many a flame war here based on cherry picked info and suspect sources.


If you will notice, most of the hate-mongering Bible verses are from the Old Testament, way before the birth of Christ... Jesus, if you hold the Bible as truthful at all, was not only a pacifist, but he was a sandal-wearing hippie liberal who loved everyone equally regardless of their deeds, religion or political affiliation. He hung out with Lepers and prostitutes... and told everyone else to back off when they said mean things about his friends. He even said that however you treat those people, you are treating him.

[BOSSHOG]

4. The old testament is used

by "conservatives" to hate, ergo they lend credence to Leviticus. However, the old testament also says we should stone to death people who work on the sabbath and other wacky things that "christians" don't involve themselves in. And their credence of Leviticus has led them to attempt to amend our constitution. Let the stonings begin or stifle any chit chat about hypocrisy.

[JuniperLea]

14. Good point!

Use as often as desired; apply liberally:)

[Caution]

5. Nah cherry picking is just a symptom of a bad argument

Just go to the 9/11 forum for massive cherry picking by the (supposed) left.

[patrice]

6. There are no absolutes/no "proof", ergo, all human brains

pick and choose.

Who said consistency is the bugaboo of little minds?

The necessary picking and choosing should lead to as valid and reliable results as possible.

The question is: What is the criteria for the picking and choosing? Politics or Validity?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. Surely cherry picking is a good thing?

When presented with a set of ideas or facts, surely it's better to go through, picking out the ones that look logical or reliable, and discarding the rest.

The problem with Bush's treatment of the intelligence was that he *didn't* cherry pick; he simply picked everything that supported one side of view - the left half of the tree, branches, leaves, cherries and all, to torture a metaphor until it cries uncle. That doesn't make for terribly good jam.

Cherrypicking from the bible, or from a political manifesto, or a philosophical tract, on the other hand, is clearly a good approach (unless you take the position that the Bible is divinely inspired, and hence all cherry).

[cliss]

8. Well... I've done it.

In Portland, you drive into the Columbia Gorge, about 40 miles to a beautiful orchard in the town of Mosier, Oregon. They have U-pick cherries, for 50 cents/lb.

....mmm, the best. Thanks for reminding me, Bosshog.

[sandnsea]

10. Really?

What time of year exactly. I did not know that, sounds like great fun. I love cherries. Great week-end trip, Portland, Gorge, cherry-picking. Woohoo!!

[cliss]

11. Actually, I was just having some fun with B_B!

Yes, these are the best cherries I've ever tasted. The orchards have different varieties, too. Queen Anne (?), light red/yellow, dark red sweet cherries, also sour cherries for making pies. And the price is right: 50c/lb.

Cherries ripen fairly early. The best time to go is around the 1st week in June, but they keep ripening all through the month of June.

Have fun! You've inspired me to go.

[sandnsea]

13. Oh cool

I was thinking of going to Portland for the Rose Parade anyway. Now I'll add cherry-picking to the itinerary.

I knew you were just funnin' around, but I really didn't know there were any u-pick cherry orchards around. :)

[playkate]

9. No

Most people who do it are blind to the fact that they do it. They either deny it, justify it, rationalize it, or lack the awareness that they do it.

[sofa king]

12. I used to be a fact checker at a law firm.

My firm fought conservatives on a day-to-day basis. Seriously, one of the more important jobs I had was to guard against "fact creep." Lawyers always want to put the best case forward for their client. But when a lawyer hands his or her best case off to another lawyer, who also puts the best case forward, cherry picking is one of the results. Inconvenient facts get softened, dropped and forgotten, while beneficial facts are spotlighted and given undue importance. Someone had to be there to draw the line.

If someone above me had told me to shut the hell up or get fired, I likely would have shut up (while looking for somewhere else to go, fast!). That's the only difference: nobody found it expedient to tell me to shove off.

As practice, in order to better spot fact creep and kill it before it got out of hand, I used to play a little game with my thesaurus. I would try to go from one word to its exact opposite using only synonyms. Example: good, ripe, late, dead, inactive, idle, torpid, apathetic, indifferent, poor, wretched, miserable, contemptible, execrable, hateful, malevolent, evil. It's kind of fun.