Things I Know

Inspiration from the blog that nobody reads, I'm going to start my own "Things I Know" post. I'm starting small, with thing #1.

---

1. Evidence and proof are not synonymous.
2. There are a lot of people in the world who are quick to dismiss an argument by ascribing possible ulterior motives to the person making the argument. These people are usually not interested in addressing the pertinent facts.
3. Models are not reality. Models are expressions of belief about reality.
4. Correlation does not mean causation.
5. Multiculturalism = No Culturalism
6. The mere fact that plausible argument can be made does not mean that its conclusion is valid.
7. Tolerance and acceptance are not synonymous.
8. People are a lot more afraid of guns than they are of restrictive gun laws. This explains a few things: 1) a lot of people support restrictive gun laws, 2) crime rates are higher where there are more restrictive gun laws, and 3) crime rates are lower where there are less restrictive gun laws.
9. Narcissism is the realm of the insecure.
10. Facts don't know right-wing or left-wing. Interpretations do.
11. Anti-fashion is still fashion.
12. "Believed to be" and "is" are not synonymous
13. You don't get to decide when a war is over until you decide to lose it.
14. Imagination without knowledge is mere amusement.
15. If you don't want people to think you're an ass, it is a heck of a lot easier to just not be one than it is to constantly hide the fact that you are.
16. When people look too hard for evidence of something, they usually find it whether it's there or not.
17. In the last 200 years, at least, tyrants typically come to power via popular support from people who buy a "class warfare" world view. This view is marketed and sold by the tyrants who wish to be in power.
18. Unfortunately, sometimes war actually IS the answer.
19. When you have to be somewhere by a certain time in the morning, make sure you know how to get there before you go to bed the night before.
20. A good salesman is what you really need when what you're trying to sell is a piece of junk.
21. Racism is a part of the history of every race. corollary: Bigotry is a part of the history of every culture.)
22. There are many bad arguments for things that are nonetheless true. However, no argument will change a falsehood into a truth.
23. The flaw in Thomas Jefferson's philosophy was not in what the rights of men are, or in his ideas about limited government, but rather in whom he considered to be men at that point in history.
24. Progressivism isn't a conspiracy. It's more like a virus.
25. Dangers to a society may be mortal without being immediate. (Thomas Sowell)
26. Progressivism makes you "good" by forcing others to do what you are too weak-willed to do yourself.
27. Vehement protests that someone is not a socialist are almost invariably followed by a spirited defense of socialism.
28. Empty rhetoric can be interpreted to mean whatever the listener wants to hear.
29. I much prefer people who have standards and sometimes fail to live up to them over people who never fail to live up to theirs because they have none.
30. People are not bound by rules that they are willing to break.
31. Activism for activism's sake is a form of narcissism.
32. If someone says he's "post ideological", that person is undoubtibly a leftist. They're the ones that believe in a single, multicultural culture, that value judgements are "bad", and, of course that since their ideology is "right", it isn't really an ideology.
33. If it's got a politician's name in front of it, it's pork.
34. If A is "political" and B is opposition to A, then B is also "political".
35. There are no "false choices".  Only false assumptions about their consequences.
36. The difference between a wise man and a prideful fool is that both have a strong desire to be right, but one of them must never, ever be wrong.
37.There are few states of anxiety that cannot be at least temporarily broken, if not completely cured by a baby's laugh.
38.A realist recognizes the positive influence of optimism.