The Importance of History

The Oakland Press makes the same mistake many people make. Now, the outcome that works might be the one the OP advocates, but the reasoning is flawed. It's something history teaches, but we all know that "history isn't important."

The OP reasons "Logic tells us the answer is somewhere in between." Well, history tells us something else: the answer, the truth is where we find it. And sometimes we find it is not "somewhere in between."

Example: For decades, Western opponents of Stalin claimed he murdered 3 to 4 million Ukrainian kulaks in the 1933-34 "Harvest of Sorrows." Oh, no, countered Stalin's apologists. The number was maybe, maybe 1 million (as if that weren't so bad!). Well, history has told us the answer wasn't "somewhere in between." In fact, it wasn't close. The answer, the truth was where we found it. And we found that the number was 9 to 13 million (with records destroyed, that's as close as we can come). So much for "the truth is somewhere in the middle."

Economics, again, "not important," teaches us similar things, namely the concept of "margin." But that is something for another day/post.

I'm tired and Cody needs to be put to bed. Out. But I do wish those who purportedly give us food for thought were better educated.