It occurs to me that the world could benefit from more affirmative fact checker. Existing fact checkers are appropriately rude to people who publicly make false claims, but there’s not much in the way of celebration of people who make difficult true claims. For example, Politifact awards “Pants on Fire” for bald lies, but only “True” for bald truths. I think there should be an even higher-status classification for true claims that run counter to the interests of the speaker. For example, we could award “Bayesian Stars” to figures who publicly update on new evidence, or “Bullets Bitten” to public figures who promulgate true evidence that weakens their arguments.
It occurs to me that the world could benefit from more affirmative fact checker. Existing fact checkers are appropriately rude to people who publicly make false claims, but there’s not much in the way of celebration of people who make difficult true claims. For example, Politifact awards “Pants on Fire” for bald lies, but only “True” for bald truths. I think there should be an even higher-status classification for true claims that run counter to the interests of the speaker. For example, we could award “Bayesian Stars” to figures who publicly update on new evidence, or “Bullets Bitten” to public figures who promulgate true evidence that weakens their arguments.