Biased witness

Frances Bolton (PHI) fbolton at chuma.cas.usf.edu
Wed Jul 22 19:34:08 PDT 1998


On Wed, 22 Jul 1998 Nurev at Kreative.net wrote:


> Charles Brown wrote:
> >
> > >>> Chuck Grimes writes
> >
> > ---------------------
> > I work with a guy who was in ARVIN (the old South Vietnam army) and
> > who stayed after the fall of Saigon, through the rest of the seventies
> > and immigrated here with the boat people in the early eighties. He has
> > returned every few years since to visit his mother and brother, most
> > recently as last May. He is strongly anti-communist both from his
> > personal experiences and as influenced by the strong anti-communist
> > Vietnamese community here in the Bay Area. His limited political
> > understandings mostly center on how Asians are treaded in the US. He
> > is lower middle/working class and sees the world mostly through the
> > moral lens of right and wrong.
> >
> > Even with that said, I believe him when he characterizes the communist
> > regime in Vietnam as mostly criminal,
> > _______________
> >
> > Why do you believe him ? Common sense would tell you
> > he MIGHT be biased. If he was a witness in court,
> > the obvious question would be "well isn't he rather
> > biased on the issue he is testifying on ? Doesn't he
> > have a motive to portray those people in a bad
> > light ?
> >
> > Charles Brown
>
> The real world isn't court, and " biased " doesn't mean it's not true.
>
> Joshua2
>
This is idiotic. By definition, biased claims have nothing to do with "truth" and everything to do with an already existing tendency or prejudice. No offense to Chuck or his friend, but if the Vietnamese anti-communist community is anything like the Cuban-American anticommunist community, his friend's story is going to be very...selective, to say the least. I suspect that, with his celebration of bias, Joshua2 is trying to justify his Zionist, antipalestinian ravings.

Frances



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