ODS - follow up given the most recent "outrage"

Ah, the timing is so perfect.  As I was saying.

Anyway,  do you remember this outrage?

Or maybe this one?

No?

OF COURSE YOU DON"T!

And why is that?  I am going to tell you.  Confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is when you search for things that confirm narratives you already believe.  In America, conservatives love the narratives that liberals don't respect our soldiers, don't love America and liberals are not patriotic.  So, at every opportunity, if they see something they can *use* to support this narrative, they jump on it.   They see certain things as compelling evidence that no other sane person would interpret that way.

On the other hand, liberals don't generally have these narratives regarding conservatives (though we have a few others of our own).  So, when Bush I and II committed these completely trivial non-events, no one noticed.  I didn't, you didn't, no one did. Because they didn't "confirm" anyone's desire to believe that Bush (I or II) hates our troops.  But we all know what it means when Obama commits similar "outrages".

Let me show you how it works from the other side.  Here is a narrative the left likes to tell about the right: Conservatives are basically racist.  You see, the "outrage" over Obama not properly saluting his subordinates is all about it: A black man (the uppity n-word) has reversed the proper order of things.  And white people don't like it.  And the more the right bitches, the more the "right wing is racist" narrative is confirmed (to those that believe it).

Now, do I think it's really racism?  Maybe it feeds some of it, but the likely driver is just what I am suggesting:  People on the right getting their already held beliefs "confirmed" by what, to anyone else, is basically nothing. 

And for the record,  Petty and supports the narrative that Obama doesn't care about our troops.