Truth, strike two

[ciphergoth]

Thanks for some interesting and surprising responses to the JFK question. At the risk of creating more heat than light, let me try another example, one that I think might be a little less comfortable to be neutral about.

It seems that many people believe that on the morning of September 11, 2001, four thousand or more Israelis who were working at the World Trade Center did not show up for work.

Are those people wrong?

(Update: amended as per ajva's caveat)

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Re (2), I disagree :)

Disagreement, to me, implies a matter of opinion.

You and I can disagree on whether plaid looks good with polka dots (well, likely we'd agree on that) and neither of us would be demonstrably wrong, unless the question is whether the consensus of fashion likes that combination.

If someone starts saying that it's a dry day and you're both standing in the middle of a rainstorm, saying "I disagree" may be more polite but seems to make dry or wet a matter of opinion and gives credence to his words, when he's just simply wrong.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

On a matter of taste, neither party is "right" or "wrong" as you say, unless they're talking about how good Guns'n'Roses in which case they are of course quite wrong. I like your rainstorm example - and I'd extend it to science which is so well established that seriously questioning it at this stage is just madness, like evolution. But of course there can be matters of objective fact about which no-one is certain enough to make bald assertions, so they have to be qualified, even though they may be straightforwardly right or wrong.

[adjectivegail]

Yes - this is sort of where I am as well.

I've actually been kind of interested recently in how different (but still very strong) my reactions are to "I disagree" and "you're wrong". The former will prompt intense interest from me and a keenness to find out where our differences lie and how far they extend, and so forth. The latter, to my mind, sounds judgemental and arrogant, and immediately puts my back up.

Further, if we're talking about something that I don't think there can be a 'right' answer to, or at least not a 'right' answer that we'll ever find out (and I'd put who shot JFK into this category, as opposed to e.g. is the earth round), it will get my temper up faster than you could wave a red flag at a bull!