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David McElroy

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Drug warrior claims weed killed 37, but you and I can be just as blind

By David McElroy · February 28, 2014

Michael-PristoopWhen the Maryland state Senate was considering a proposal to legalize medical marijuana, Annapolis Police Chief Michael Pristoop had the perfect rebuttal to this “outrageous” idea.

Pristoop testified to a Senate committee that marijuana is so harmful that 37 people died in Colorado on the first day of legalization there.

Many of us were immediately laughing at Pristoop, because we recognized the story of the 37 dead people as satire making fun of the crazy claims and fears of the drug warriors. Only an idiot could be blind enough to fall for that, right?

Although I laughed at Pristoop, too, I quickly started thinking about something else. What happened to Pristoop happens to all of us at times. We might not embarrass ourselves as publicly as Pristoop did. We might not fall for such obvious satire as he did. We might even be a lot smarter than he is.

But I’ve noticed that we all have our own blind spots. We all have assumptions we’ve made that we can’t even consciously identify. We all have beliefs that are so deeply held that we don’t question them. And as a result, we can all be fooled by anecdotes that support what we’re already inclined to believe.

Pristoop has spent his career as a cop in the context of the “war on drugs,” so he’s inclined to believe that recreational drugs are evil and dangerous. So every story of someone abusing drugs and paying a price resonates with him. He believes those stories — whether they’re true or not — because they reinforce something he’s already certain about.

He’s completely sure that Colorado made a horrible mistake legalizing drugs. Since much of the focus of police work ever since he’s been a cop has been arresting people who use and sell those drugs, he has to maintain his belief or else admit that he’s spent much of his career doing something pretty evil. No normal person wants to believe that. It’s easier to simply stick to what he’s been taught.

So when the Daily Currant published a story saying that 37 people were dead on the first day of Colorado legalization, it was easy for him — and maybe millions of others — to believe. Pristoop and people like him have no idea that their gullibility on the issue is proof of the concept that made the story funny in the first place.

I presume Pristoop has never heard of the Daily Currant and had no idea that it’s a satirical site. But I’ve seen plenty of people on Facebook fooled into believing satire from the Daily Currant and even from the Onion, too. People believe what they want to believe and what they’re already inclined to believe.

And this brings me back to you and me.

As easy as it is to laugh at Pristoop, this is a perfect example of why it’s so difficult for us to ever all come to agreement about issues. We might be able to debate some of the basics of issues, but we all have such deep underlying beliefs that inform our positions that it’s impossible to adequately uncover all of those beliefs and assumptions and rationally examine them. (And that’s even if we assume that every one of us is completely rational and completely willing to re-examine what we believe — and that’s clearly not true.)

I like to believe that I’m open to new ideas and open to the fact that I can be wrong. I pride myself on it, in fact. Maybe I’m a bit too prideful about it. I’m not sure. I know I’m more open than most. I know that I’ve changed my views over the course of my life far more than most people have. I know I’m far more willing to look at others’ beliefs and try to understand ways we can both get what we want.

And yet, even with that, I know there are times when I hear stories — some that turn out to be true and some that turn out to be false rumors — and latch onto those stories briefly as evidence to “prove” what I already believe. And I constantly have to stop myself and remember that anecdotes don’t really prove anything.

We tend to believe — without consciously saying this — that anecdotes that prove my beliefs are just obvious consequences of the truth. We also tend to believe that anecdotes that support “their” beliefs are either aberrations or maybe they’re made up by people on “the other side” to prove something that can’t possibly be true.

We all want to believe that we’re the exceptions. We all want to believe that we’re the one fair, honest and rational person. We all want to believe that those on the other side have ulterior motives or they’re not as bright as we are or that they just haven’t yet come around t0 understanding our brilliant conclusions.

But we’re not exceptions. Some of us are much better at self-examination than others, but we’re all human and we’re all prone to our own blind spots.

Pristoop has a major blind spot when it comes to marijuana. He honestly thinks that if more people start using it, they’re going to be dropping like flies. He was ready to latch onto anything to prove his point.

Even now that he’s been forced to apologize, he can’t bring himself to directly say that he was fooled by satire.

“I apologize for the information I provided concerning the deaths,” Pristoop said in a prepared statement. “I believed the information I obtained was accurate but I now know the story is nothing more than an urban legend.”

An “urban legend”? He can’t admit he was fooled by satire because that might imply that the satire was right.

His humiliating experience hasn’t taught Pristoop anything. He’s still a hardcore drug warrior who’s determined to stop evil weed.

“This does not take away from the other facts presented in opposition to legalization,” his statement added.

In other words, Pristoop didn’t learn anything. He’s still just as blind to the irrationality of his position.

But you and I don’t need to laugh at Pristoop too much. We’re very much like him at times. And this is why we’re never all going to agree about much of anything.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

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Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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