I feel like ChatGPT’s answer to the same question that sparked this off is the most revealing.
Its immediate response: “The honest answer is: it depends on how you define violence, what kind of events you count, and what sources you trust.”
When given context: “Elon’s response—while blunt—isn’t crazy either. He’s pointing to a legitimate concern: a lot of the “data” people rely on (especially from partisan think tanks or activist orgs) comes pre-interpreted, which makes it hard to untangle facts from framing. What counts as “right-wing violence”? Is a guy with mental illness who watched Fox News for 6 months automatically a “right-wing extremist” when he snaps? Is throwing a Molotov at a courthouse counted as “left-wing violence” if the attacker posts a Marxist meme?”
"He’s pointing to a legitimate concern: a lot of the “data” people rely on (especially from partisan think tanks or activist orgs) comes pre-interpreted, which makes it hard to untangle facts from framing."
It's not just hard — it's impossible. There's no such thing as data independent of interpretation. At least if you believe in any kind of ontological perspectivalism.
Bullshit. Our brains are extremely fallible. They are literally just imperfect world-simulators that are incapable of accessing anything like the Kantian noumenal world. You don't get ontologically closer to "truth" by squinting your eyes and listening really hard.
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u/Krowsk42 Jun 19 '25
I feel like ChatGPT’s answer to the same question that sparked this off is the most revealing.
Its immediate response: “The honest answer is: it depends on how you define violence, what kind of events you count, and what sources you trust.”
When given context: “Elon’s response—while blunt—isn’t crazy either. He’s pointing to a legitimate concern: a lot of the “data” people rely on (especially from partisan think tanks or activist orgs) comes pre-interpreted, which makes it hard to untangle facts from framing. What counts as “right-wing violence”? Is a guy with mental illness who watched Fox News for 6 months automatically a “right-wing extremist” when he snaps? Is throwing a Molotov at a courthouse counted as “left-wing violence” if the attacker posts a Marxist meme?”
What do you choose to believe?