As I was writing my last story about how Fox News ruined my friend, H., I did some research on statistics that H. and I had been discussing on abortion. Well, I knew that the number of abortions performed on black and women of color was three to five times greater than those performed on white women, I started to question that H. was against abortion because it was killing white babies.
I tried to explain that the percentages of something are different from just adding up the total number. I suspected Fox News was flashing total sums on their biased screens. This would show the total number of abortions for white women as larger than the total for black women, but if you look at the percentage, you would get a lower number.
Since H. was quite skilled in automotive mechanics, I said it was like the difference between looking at your odometer and your speedometer. I think he understood. At least it ended the discussion about abortion.
It didn’t end the discussion about race relations. You can imagine that H. will never admit to being racist. We have a mutual acquaintance, C. who is a black woman. One time about five years ago, H. told me about an argument the two of them were having. C. called H. a racist (I agree). But H. called C. a racist right back. Does this remind you of elementary school?
I tried to shed some light by pointing out that to me being a racist is different from being prejudiced. Prejudice is a thought process that is tied up with bias, and can be partly unconscious, whereas racism is more of a behavior that is shown by words and actions. You still won’t hear that distinction on Fox. They are all so busy saying they are not racist, while betraying their true thoughts with the words that betray them.
When Double Downer was elected president in 2016, H. was not happy with him. He actually seemed depressed. He said D.D. was ruining the Republican Party. I didn’t quite absorb this at the time. I couldn’t imagine the extant to which lawyers, legislators, etc. could lie so much to follow the stupidest man I have ever seen. And, by the way, I used to give I.Q. tests. I’m still searching for an instance of any wisdom in that brain. Is there? If you can’t admit your mistakes and change course, you are in danger of going off the cliff.
Will continue…
MethadonianX 