Figures never lie, but liars will figure. This pithy quote is attributed to Mark Twain, but like so many quotes, may be falsely attributed. However, the implication that data and statistics are important but can be manipulated by the unscrupulous is an important caveat to any discussion of the importance of facts and data.
The recent assassination of Charlie Kirk, who often engaged in heated debates with liberal college students as a way to spread his hard-right brand of Christian conservatism, caused me to review some of his debates and consider the larger question of how we study and interpret the issues that plague our current political landscape.
Charlie Kirk was no deep thinker. He was a hard-right provocateur in the spirit of Rush Limbaugh and other shock jocks. He is being eulogized for his willingness to engage in debate and dialogue, but these debates and interactions were always superficial. No serious analysis of issues took place. The goal was to ‘own the libs’, and Kirk was somewhat skilled at making clever jibes that seemed to make sense to an audience desperate for validation of their own prejudices. His so-called debates were pure entertainment, not a real channel for engagement. Charlie Kirk was a skilled political operator, nothing more.
The only way to truly work through political, social and economic issues is to analyze the data and think deeply about how that data can be interpreted. It isn’t easy, and it isn’t foolproof. There is always potential for people to manipulate or misconstrue facts to confirm their biases. But careful study and good faith interaction will generally lead to at least a moderation of extreme views and a potential for compromise.
Sadly, the American people have little patience for data or details. Ross Perot’s candidacy for president in 1992 was doomed after he famously brought out a flip chart and tried to educate the audience by using graphs and data. Americans are bred on political sound bites and the verbal pugilism of talk radio, TV news and Internet memes.
Our rabidly partisan political situation has triggered a near total abandonment of deep, factual analysis. The primary channels of social media have no capability to foster gracious, sincere exchange of carefully thought-out views. There are Internet spaces where deep thinking is recorded (substack, patreon and others), but only a tiny minority of Americans engage.
When careful, deep analysis is abandoned, the political landscape becomes dominated by boisterous, brutal and violent people. The loudest, most extreme and most simplistic opinions are embraced with fervor by a public that only has appetite for the clever quip or the putdown.
When data and facts are no longer the basis of political dialogue, democracy goes into a death spiral. Who will pull us out?
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