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Estimated Prophets
Gluttons for news, culture and politics don’t have to be Robert K. Merton in order to learn alot these days about the limitations and uncertainties of public policy. From (potentially) fresh Twitter owner-operator Elon Musk to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, examples of unforeseen consequences from the deliberate actions of even the most rich and powerful ought to curb even the most jaded media influencers’ desires to shape our common future.
Nevertheless, from the stiffest formalities of the News business to the common Twitter feed, few can seem to break the prediction addiction. Just this very morning upon this writing, CNN posted a story “Elon Musk wants to ‘authenticate all real humans’ on Twitter. Here’s what that could mean” and an opinion piece headlined “Expect Putin to make a big announcement on May 9.”
So many things to predict, from a war in Europe to midterm elections at home that will determine the legislative agenda and leadership for at least the rest of President Joe Biden’s first term, even while the electorate stumbles on the basic elements of public policy discourse. The misplaced priorities of our Constitutionally mandated free press are thus exposed by the inability of large cohorts of likely voters among the qualified electorate to grasp even basic factual elements of the issues and events up for debate, like the complete absence of evidence in over sixty court…