- Mar 14, 2023
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Fact-checking Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's 1st presidential debate
ABC News live fact-checked Harris and Trump's statements for answers that were exaggerated, needed more context or were false.
It would be useful for Christians to carefully read through all the
items that were fact checked. And, to read other news sources' fact
checking for the debate (such as CNN).
The political debate between Democrats and Republicans, in Washington, D.C.,
has been so angry and stylized, that it is difficult to get at whether or not the
slogans used by both parties, are true.
Many of the fact checking results have "Need Context" noted. That is, the
statement by the candidate needs to be narrowed by other details, in order
to be true. Politicians in Washington have become loose, making broad
generalizations that are true sometimes, but not true in other situations.
Christians need to listen less to the general slogans, and as about the
details surrounding the generalizations.
Some of the assertions by the candidates, are simply false.
Some of the false statements, are still widely accepted as true, by some
social media platforms.
Some of the assertions are false, and backed up (as false) by professional
economists, however some groups still are promoting them as true.
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One of the things that HAS GOT TO CHANGE IN WASHINGTON, is the
presentation of slogans that are so general, as to be almost meaningless.
The real situation in America includes complex dynamics, and the political
candidates need to feel free to talk about topics such as "inflation" using
many more types of information, and more complicated statements, than
"it's great" or "it's worse than it has ever been before". You would not let
your financial retirement planner to use this type of silly statement to describe
how they are handling your financial investments -- and we should not expect
these sorts of childish statements to be used by politicians.
The problem with politicians, is that American citizens let them get away with
stating goals, without substantially stating HOW THEY WILL REACH THOSE GOALS.
Anyone can assert that they will attain goals, that American citizens find attractive.
But in complex technical situations, we have seen that the average American
citizen does not have the technical skills, to bring about those goals. In a very
technology centered society (sorry to say this), but amateur citizens don't have
the technical tools to reach technical goals.
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I find that many of the same useless generalizations in politics, are
aimed at people who do not carefully look for information about
the underlying topics (that the slogans claim to be addressing).
The same problem of shallow slogans, exists in the area of Christian apologetics.
Christian apologetics that is filled with religious slogans, but is not very careful
about using biblical definitions of words and phrases, may sound wonderful (to
some denominational groups), but will be producing LOGICALLY UNSOUND
arguments.
Christians should reject slogan apologetics, and slogan politics, and carefully look
to test all things, and hold onto what is good. And THAT does not mean going to
your favorite daytime talk show host for answers. Try reading articles from 20
different news sources (such as the Google news page). Try reading the articles in
Christianity Today, about political candidates.
