# Reality leans left? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442 "2019-03-02T19:24:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/1 "2019-03-02T19:24:51Z")
Ok, so I’ve seen it posted a couple of different times here on the boards, and a few times out there on the internet generally (I’d post some links but it’s a real pita on my phone). “Reality leans left” and “reality has a leftist (or liberal) bias” to me these are more or less the same statement with a variation in wording. I think I understand what this means, that the world has steadily progressed technologically, knowledge has grown, social attitudes and mores have grown more permissive and accepting. This progression is inevitable. That all of these are of a package, take away one and the rest fail. I guess the reason I’m puzzled by this is because if my understanding is correct, it seems like such an obvious thing that should jump out to someone with even just the must superficial perusal of a history book. Water is wet, the sun is hot and bright, humanity generally progresses from primitive brute repressive savagery to advanced open acceptance. Am I wrong or missing something? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/2 "2019-03-02T19:35:19Z")
It’s not about technological or social progress _per se_, it’s mockery of right wing attitudes in the U.S. It’s a joke, playing on right wing accusations of media bias when the media are just reporting reality; and the tendency of the most vocal elements on the right to be anti-science, to care little for facts or evidence, and (more recently) to just lie when reality doesn’t suit the narrative. See also _truthiness_. > **[Truthiness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness)** > > Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts. Truthiness can range from ignorant assertions of falsehoods to deliberate duplicity or propaganda intended to sway opinions. > The concept of truthiness has emerged as a major subject of discussion surrounding U.S. politics during the late 20th and early 21st centuries because of t... ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/3 "2019-03-02T19:36:12Z")
> [@guestchaz](#): > > Ok, so I’ve seen it posted a couple of different times here on the boards, and a few times out there on the internet generally (I’d post some links but it’s a real pita on my phone). > > “Reality leans left” and “reality has a leftist (or liberal) bias” to me these are more or less the same statement with a variation in wording. > > I think I understand what this means, that the world has steadily progressed technologically, knowledge has grown, social attitudes and mores have grown more permissive and accepting. This progression is inevitable. That all of these are of a package, take away one and the rest fail. > > I guess the reason I’m puzzled by this is because if my understanding is correct, it seems like such an obvious thing that should jump out to someone with even just the must superficial perusal of a history book. Water is wet, the sun is hot and bright, humanity generally progresses from primitive brute repressive savagery to advanced open acceptance. > > Am I wrong or missing something? One could argue that it has historically cycled as a progression towards advancement, fairness, etc, then society collapses and reverts back to the right. Rinse and repeat . ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/4 "2019-03-02T20:01:25Z")
I think of it more as reality is neutral, but human institutions have, in almost all times and places, a natural (small c) conservative bias – simply because the powerful lose when society changes, and because they are the powerful, they have an outsized influence on whether it changes or not. But the original quote is a joke about how, at least for as long as I’ve been alive, the political right has complained more and more about media bias against them, to the point where the number of sources they accept as unbiased is vanishingly small. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/5 "2019-03-02T20:13:01Z")
It’s not just about conservatives claiming the media is biased. It’s also pointing out that many conservative political positions are based on false premises and don’t stand up to fact-checking. Climate change denial is the most obvious example. ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/6 "2019-03-02T20:40:55Z")
If your question is, “Does the world gradually get more ‘liberal’” The answer is “No.” What is going on is that we are in an era that has largely been dominated by a Western European culture that was infused with an emphasis on ‘the individual’ due to the Protestant Reformation. There is no reason that Western European culture needs to continue being the dominant culture nor that its values be adopted by whatever comes next. In fact, there is at least some reason to believe that that era is coming to an end. Economic power has shifted eastward and demographics are pushing southward. How exactly these cultures will express themselves if when they become dominant is an unknown. China certainly doesn’t currently seem like it will be pushing for traditional ‘liberal’ values as we understand them in the West. The reality is that barbarism and civilization are social constructs. Not objective things. We have ‘progressed’ largely because we have chosen to define those things that we believe our culture does well as ‘progress.’ ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/7 "2019-03-02T21:16:17Z")
I always thought reality leans right. Like the idealistic liberal college student trying to live some quasi hippy lifestyle soon finds himself having to cut his hair and get a corporate job. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/8 "2019-03-02T22:21:16Z")
The counterpoint statement to that would be Margaret Thatcher’s statement: “the facts of life are conservative.” It depends on what one considers to liberal or conservative. For instance, men are, on average, physically stronger than women - is that a conservative or liberal fact? People often behave in brutal or genocidal fashion under the right conditions (Cambodian killing fields, Rwandan genocide, Stanford experiments, ordinary Germans partaking in the Holocaust) - is that a liberal or conservative fact? When transgender athletes participate in women’s events, they often dominate due to still having male characteristics - is that liberal or conservative? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/9 "2019-03-02T22:25:06Z")
Another counterexample: Communism generally fails because a system in which everyone gets the same thing regardless of work/effort runs counter to human nature. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/10 "2019-03-02T23:12:59Z")
Your “another counterexample” is neither a left fact or right fact, it is just completely wrong. Communism is NOT “everyone gets the same thing regardless of work/effort”. Not all “Communism” fails. There are plenty of communist societies that have been thriving for hundreds of years. Many “Communist” **governments** fail because of authoritarianism; communism is founded on cooperation - which doesnt work so well when people are told what to do. There are plenty of people here who would be able to enlighten you to the pros and cons of communism if you’d care to start another thread. Or simply read one of the plethora of ones already written. mc ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/11 "2019-03-02T23:16:42Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > Your “another counterexample” is neither a left fact or right fact, it is just completely wrong. Honestly, I’m not sure we could’ve come up with a better example to explain the statement the OP is asking about if we’d tried. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/12 "2019-03-02T23:23:09Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I always thought reality leans right. Like the idealistic liberal college student trying to live some quasi hippy lifestyle soon finds himself having to cut his hair and get a corporate job. So, sure, the stereotype that you imagine of your political opponents isn’t a very robust individual, but then, it’s not a very realistic portrayal at all of anything near mainstream left political beliefs or actions. May as well say that obviously reality leans left. Like the homeschooled fundamentalist flat earther, anti-vaxx, anti-evolution anti-climate change prepper hiding up in the hills eventually finds himself coming back down out of the hills when he runs out of beef jerky. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/13 "2019-03-02T23:56:16Z")
It was a joke by Stephen Colbert’s right wing caricature: > [@](#): > > I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.” And reality has a well-known liberal bias. If it’s true at all, it’s only true in recent years, maybe decades, as conservatives in the US continue to embrace trickle-down economics (which has never worked) and climate change denial. Back in the '80s, it was maybe possible to argue that trickle-down could work, but they tried it and failed. Similarly, back in the '80s, climate change had nowhere near as much evidence for it as it does now, so you could argue that it’s that big of a deal. Time marches on, trickle-down experiments are tried, satellites gather climate data, and the conservatives in the US don’t move their positions, so now, it seems that reality has that bias. Of course, since the advent of Trump, reality really has a liberal bias – he didn’t really have the largest crowd ever at his inauguration, there really weren’t millions of illegal votes, he didn’t really accomplish more than any other president ever in his first couple of years, etc., etc. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2019, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/14 "2019-03-02T23:58:32Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I always thought reality leans right. Like the idealistic liberal college student trying to live some quasi hippy lifestyle soon finds himself having to cut his hair and get a corporate job. I was an idealistic, liberal college student, but I didn’t try and live that lifestyle. I cut my hair, got a corporate job, and I’m still very liberal, maybe more so. So, what’s your point? ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/15 "2019-03-03T00:53:47Z")
Ok so, basically, it’s satire that I completely missed because I don’t watch enough of the right tv shows. The thread has taken an interesting direction though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/16 "2019-03-03T02:01:59Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > It was a joke by Stephen Colbert’s right wing caricature: Colbert was mocking things conservatives had been saying. Karl Rove was mocking political opponents because they were stuck in reality. He said that members of the Bush administration were creating the realities that they wanted to exist: > [@](#): > > That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/17 "2019-03-03T03:40:21Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > But the original quote is a joke about how, at least for as long as I’ve been alive, the political right has complained more and more about media bias against them, to the point where the number of sources they accept as unbiased is vanishingly small. I also think a large part of it is that the traditional role of media has been to critique the government, corporations, pretty much anyone in power. Particularly abuses of that power. Conservatives seem to take exception to that and would prefer the media act more as a loyal cheerleader to their ideology. Sort of like Fox News. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/18 "2019-03-03T04:30:32Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I also think a large part of it is that the traditional role of media has been to critique the government, corporations, pretty much anyone in power. Particularly abuses of that power. Conservatives seem to take exception to that and would prefer the media act more as a loyal cheerleader to their ideology. Sort of like Fox News. You prefer they suck up to democrats? ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/19 "2019-03-03T04:33:08Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I also think a large part of it is that the traditional role of media has been to critique the government, corporations, pretty much anyone in power. Particularly abuses of that power. Conservatives seem to take exception to that and would prefer the media act more as a loyal cheerleader to their ideology. Sort of like Fox News. You prefer they suck up to democrats? No really. They really did show a preference to people like the Obamas and Clintons. I dont remember any democrats slogans being called racist like the media portrays MAGA. Notice how SNL rarely made jokes about them and when they did they were careful never to draw blood. Remember how back in 2016 on election night how all the news pundits were besides themselves as they saw Trump win. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442/20 "2019-03-03T06:56:23Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > You prefer they suck up to democrats? > > No really. They really did show a preference to people like the Obamas and Clintons. I dont remember any democrats slogans being called racist like the media portrays MAGA. Notice how SNL rarely made jokes about them and when they did they were careful never to draw blood. Remember how back in 2016 on election night how all the news pundits were besides themselves as they saw Trump win. You post this and you probably wonder why so many of us really do think the Right has completely abandoned reality and logic? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reality-leans-left/830442.md?page=2)