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Comment by martythemaniak | Hacker News Reader

I heard reality has a well-known liberal bias.

I admit that I cannot even imagine the state of mind in which one could attribute parochial, contingent political preferences to the UNIVERSE.

It's a joke made by Steven Colbert at the 2006 White House correspondents' dinner which referenced the Bush Administration's low poll numbers and the tendency of that administration to attribute bad press to "liberal media bias." This is also the administration that brought us the use of the term "reality based community" as an anti-leftist pejorative.

It is not meant to be literally interpreted as attributing contingent political preferences to the universe, but rather to be a (politically biased) statement on the tendency of conservatives to categorically deny reality and reframe it as leftist propaganda whenever it contradicts their narrative. One can extend this "bias" to include the rejection of mainstream scientific and historical narratives as "woke" by the right in a more modern context.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert_at_the_2006_Wh...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

Let me explain the joke for you: liberals are less likely to believe that verifiable facts and theories are merely contingent political preferences.

I see leftists denying inconvenient facts just as much as rightists. It's just the inevitable product of a tribal mentality, the tribe doesn't matter.

Ah yes, the good old enlightened centrist

Way to go dismissing ideologies as mere tribalism. I'm sure that's a great way to just shut off your brain.

https://www.paulgraham.com/mod.html

> There are two distinct ways to be politically moderate: on purpose and by accident. Intentional moderates are trimmers, deliberately choosing a position mid-way between the extremes of right and left. Accidental moderates end up in the middle, on average, because they make up their own minds about each question, and the far right and far left are roughly equally wrong.

I never liked this answer. Moderates could just be wrong.

"Intentional moderate" is certainly just another tribe. Aiming squarely for the middle of the Overton window du jour is sort of a politician's job, but it shouldn't be emulated by others.

The joke is not about who denies facts, it’s about the absurdity of calling someone “biased” when they take the side of an argument that is better supported by reality, and about who tends to do that more often.

Which facts? Please be specific.

Ask a liberal about capitalism.

Both sides just pick and trumpet the hard truths that they like.

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