thread about reactionaries and claims without evidence

[BootinUp]

Link to tweet

At every moment of US history, reactionaries have been saying that immigration is out of control and that immigrants are lazy and dirty and ruining the country. Similarly, at every moment of US history, reactionaries have been saying that young people are lazy ...
... and don't work as hard as their elders. Similarly, at every moment of US history reactionaries have been saying that proper values & decency are under threat from intellectuals and libertines. Similarly, at every moment of US history, reactionaries have been saying ...

... that the US is under threat from other countries & that efforts at international cooperation are merely ruses to weaken the US. Similarly, at every moment of US history, reactionaries have been saying that they are being persecuted and treated unfairly by institutions.
Now, it is probably the case that reactionaries have been correct about some of these things in some instances. If you say the same thing all the time, just as a matter of probabilities you're eventually going to be correct on occasion. Stopped clock, etc.
But at the same time, if you always say the same thing, it's a good bet that you're not saying it in response to a careful empirical assessment of circumstances. It's likely that you have extremely strong psychological dispositions that warp your perceptions in predictable ways.
It seems to me that this should inform the way the rest of us respond to claims by reactionaries. If they say, eg, that kids these days don't know how to work hard, absent extremely convincing empirical evidence, that claim should be given roughly zero weight.

Continued

Link to tweet

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1570848107298160640.html