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

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

Yup, they're wrong. (Why come off the fence here? Off the top of my head, because it's more important, there's clearer and more verifiable evidence, and I care more about it.)

The important question for me then becomes how much energy to devote to bringing them round to something less objectionable and how best to do that. (And a personal safety question too.) In this particular example, saying "you're wrong" is not where I'd be most likely to begin. I'd be strongly suspecting a deeper and even more important wrongness underlying that belief, and would try to tease that out and gently but firmly challenge it. The details of wrongness in this instance would be relevant and helpful in doing so, but not the only tools.