The url pretty much says it all. I’m a progressive contrarian. After spending decades in the belly of the left/liberal beast, I came to believe they could suffer from the same confirmation biases ad the right. This belief has led many on my side of the fence think I’ve gone over to the darkside. Nothing can be further from the truth. I still maintain my progressive beliefs, but with the caveat, nonsense is nonsense. To hunker down down and refuse to see nonsense, especially when it comes from your side only helps the other side. The liberal/left are masters at that.
This blog was started to combat the confirmation biases of the liberal/left in areas like science. The left rightly criticizes the right for their anti-science stance. But the left can be equally as guilty. With this blog I hope to dispel the nonsense that gets peddled by advocacy groups, frauds and charlatans. I understand this is a tough row to hoe. Otherwise intelligent individuals refuse to shed themselves of misguided notions, even when faced with the facts and evidence.
They says facts have a liberal bias. They do unless those facts disagree with what the liberal/left thinks.
In the arena of politics, I will try and point out times when the left seems to be shooting themselves in the foot. My opinions there are just that, opinions. You can take ’em or leave ’em. I don’t claim to have the answers, but I just put it out as food for thought.
What I hope to do is write things that will at least cause people to question their entrenched belief systems. Yell at me, curse at me, but when you do, at least back it up with a well reasoned response.
Contrary to popular belief 
Hi Bernie,
I’d really like to subscribe to your blog posts, but I prefer to subscribe to blogs by RSS. Any chance of adding an RSS feed?
Done. Thanks for reading.
Thanks. I’m now subscribed.
Mr. Mooney,
I appreciate what you are trying to do, but I wonder if you are helping to perpetuate a false equivalence in respect of progressives being “as full of shit as right.” And by the way, did you mean that the left can “be as full of shit as right”, or that they can “be as full of shit as THE right”?
I believe the right is already quite eager (though I wonder about capable..) to “combat the confirmation biases of the liberal/left in areas like science”, and don’t need your help. But hey, knock yourself out! I heartily agree that nonsense is nonsense, regardless of party affiliation. Do you know of any “conservative contrarians” who are combatting the confirmation biases of the right that you can recommend? So why are you not an equal opportunity contrarian?! I think you wrote, because the left should know better?
Shouldn’t the right know better; but importantly, if not, why not?
Are you familiar with the controversy in this recent election about the frighteningly accurate predictions by Nate Silver’s 538 Blog? My sense is that the liberal/left embraced the “science” of the 538 polling, while the conservative/right challenged and/or dismissed it, to their great disappointment I gotta think. I’d be very interested in your thoughts on that controversy, especially as to what it reveals in terms of confirmation biases…
Here’s one you ought to read:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/19/florida_senator_marco_rubio_the_age_of_the_earth_is_a_great_mystery.html?google_editors_picks=true
Hard to imagine someone on the left giving this kind of answer.. Where’s the outrage?
Oh, there will be plenty of outrage but, you know, you expect that kind of talk from the Right. My desire is to help keep the Left honest. You don’t think of progressives as anti-science, but there is a streak that runs through it. And when they’re not being anti-science they act with their worldview instead of the realities. My post about environmentalists being against what they’re for is a good example. Thanks for reading and commenting.
I was liberal and now am mostly libertarian. There are many libertarians that share more of the unscientific tendencies of the left, than the right. In any case, it is very hard to combat.