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ANR
Dear Editor:
Trying to track Mr. Burger’s reasoning skills is an exercise in cognitive dissonance. First, he assails the validity of the evidence I presented of an illegal and fraudulent election, because they are “... meaningless because you failed to cite your sources. Without source information, it is impossible to verify your claims ...”
So, I replied by citing a fairly extensive list of sources. Mr. Burger now claims that wasn’t enough because my claims are “flawed” due to something called “confirmation bias.” To support his accusation, he references an article in Psychology Today in 2011. Mr. Burger summarizes the article: “Humans tend to seek only information that confirms their previously held worldview, and ignore or refute any information that might tend to contradict those worldviews.” He concludes his argument by quoting Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson: “One of the biggest problems with the world today is that we have large groups of people who will accept whatever they hear on the grapevine, just because it suits their worldview, not because it is actually true or because they have evidence to support it...”
In psychology they may call it “confirmation bias;” in science and logic, it is called inductive reasoning. In deductive reasoning, which I prefer to practice, you take the evidence which is present to arrive at conclusions. Example: A equals B; B equals C; therefore, A equals C.
As far as I can determine from our little “discussion,” I am the only one who has presented facts and sources. Mr. Burger has presented allegations he has picked up from the “grapevine,” i.e. the so-called mainstream media, the same media that has been lying to America for four years about President Trump’s election being illegitimate because of Russian collusion. Being totally innocent, President Trump allowed this hoax to be investigated by a special counsel and several congressional committees. After illegally spying on Trump and his campaign and spending $40 million, they came up with zero! Now that all the “classified” documents have been released, what did we find? Hillary Clinton and the DNC are the ones who colluded with foreigners in an attempt to overthrow a duly-elected president. In psychology, they call that projection.
Perhaps, a bit of bias slipped out when Mr. Burger dismissed some of my sources because they are “examples of extremely conservative think tanks.” Before casting aspersions on “extremely conservative” sources, a truly dispassionate researcher would explain what makes something “extreme” and why conservative sources are less reliable than liberal ones. He would also do enough research to realize they are not “think tanks;” they are news organizations. The cover story on the Feb. 15 edition of the liberal Time magazine written by renowned journalist Mary Ball confirms what President Trump has said all along -- the election was rigged by a “well-funded cabal of powerful people.”
Before making accusations of “confirmation bias,” or inductive reasoning, I suggest Mr. Burger take a quick peek in the mirror.
Irl Gilliland,
Henderson
Third District
deserves honest representation
Dear Editor:
On. Jan. 6th, the day rioters violently entered the US Capitol, was a catastrophic day of historic consequence. The U.S Congress had the courage to return to their deliberations after the unprecedented attack. Later, in the dark of night, Nebraska third Congressional Representative Adrian Smith voted to object to accept the Electoral College votes that were certified for Joe Biden.
In an Omaha World-Herald interview posted online, Mr. Smith indicated he voted this way because he is concerned about elections. Representative Smith, having served both in the Nebraska Unicameral and the House of Representatives in Washington, knows that election reform occurs at the state level. He should be sharing his election concerns with Nebraska State Legislators in Lincoln, not showboating in Washington.
He is trying to distract from the reality of his vote by disguising it with irrelevant concerns.
It should have taken little courage and been straight forward to vote to accept the Electoral College votes as certified in the states.
At every level, from local voting precincts where people we know serve to help us cast our ballots all the way to U.S. Supreme Court which evaluated filed lawsuits for merit concerning alleged voting impropriety and found none, all the facts have shown the election to have been fair.
In reality, Mr. Smith was less than courageous. His vote was simply pandering to a portion of his base to retain his seat in Congress.
I grew up on a southeastern Nebraska farm where my parents taught me right from wrong.
My fellow Nebraskans, the third Congressional district is made up of citizens who know right from wrong.
What Mr. Smith did with his vote was wrong and we deserve better more honest representation.
Jerold Ebke,
Fairbury
