Quote of the Day, This Is What Epistemic Closure Looks Like edition.

Portrait of a woman who – quite entertainingly – obviously does not understand why last week’s General Election in the UK returned such a surprising result:

One of the first things I did after seeing the depressing election news this morning was check to see which of my Facebook friends ‘like’ the pages of the Conservatives or David Cameron, and unfriend them. (Thankfully, none of my friends ‘like’ the UKIP page.) Life is too short, I thought, to hang out with people who hold abhorrent political views, even if it’s just online.

…I have friends who are Democrats, myself. Obviously, they’re wrong – but there’s a wide gulf between ‘wrong’ and ‘abhorrent.’  And if you’re the sort of person who is too intellectually incurious to be able to detect the difference, you’re generally going to have a lot of unpleasant day-after-election experiences when your side doesn’t win.

But never mind me.

Via

https://twitter.com/CharlesCrawford/status/597410333834289152

Moe Lane

PS: I didn’t really believe in ‘shy Tory’ syndrome before this election. The American version is often invoked (usually to talk down a bad poll) and rarely seen. But apparently it really is a thing in the United Kingdom, and judging from some of the people who populate the Left over there I can understand why.

9 thoughts on “Quote of the Day, This Is What Epistemic Closure Looks Like edition.”

  1. ‘shy Tory’ is the old ‘silent majority’ thing. I’m sure it was worth some seats.

    Two other factors equally potent:

    a) Feckless Ed Miliband and his principle-free university-Left pandering

    b) I think most potently the prospect that the Jock Tide would hand Red Ed a minority government beholden to the SNP.

    It would have been something akin to the last Aussie government, where a Labor party run by urban leftists was completely under the thumb of its Green minority partner. Even the last UK ‘coalition’ saw economic development and immigration policy heavily watered down to placate the greenish-left tilt of the LibDems.

  2. Not that big step from “they are abhorrent” to “they must be liquidated”.

  4. “Sure, social media can be a powerful and unregulated force for good, and we can all share our views through Facebook and Twitter—but, given that people tend to follow those who roughly share their views, we’re preaching to the converted.”
    .
    I wonder why.
    .
    “One of the first things I did after seeing the depressing election news this morning was check to see which of my Facebook friends ‘like’ the pages of the Conservatives or David Cameron, and unfriend them.
    .
    Oh. Carry on, then.

  5. If i know someone in person, I’m glad to keep in touch through any means and philosophize. However, if FB etc. are my only extant points of contact, then Arguing On The Internet looses any appeal.
    My time needs to go elsewhere, and I don’t need their troll-bail gumming up my feed.

  7. Considering how vindictive the Left is it does not surprise me that people would be very circumspect when talking to pollsters. Sure, they say it will all be anonymous but why would anyone trust them? They have your phone number, they can find your name, and then they can punish you for ThoughtCrime.

    Why trust them?

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