Comments on: Promiscuous Facts: Barack Obama and Uncertain Knowledge http://www.deliberatelyconsidered.com/2012/02/promiscuous-facts-barack-obama-and-uncertain-knowledge-2/ Informed reflection on the events of the day Wed, 15 Jul 2015 17:00:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.23 By: Scott http://www.deliberatelyconsidered.com/2012/02/promiscuous-facts-barack-obama-and-uncertain-knowledge-2/comment-page-1/#comment-23879 Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:50:00 +0000 http://www.deliberatelyconsidered.com/?p=11605#comment-23879 To answer the question: “if the president were forced to select one of these rumors to be true, which one would he select?,” I would say that it would certainly be “Barack Obama is a Socialist,” because for one thing, it does have some kernel of truth to it. And to that extent, Paul Ryan, who publicly admitted he believes that there should be a safety net in place to help those that have fallen on hard times “through no fault of their own” is also socialist. However, as the author points out, few know exactly what they mean when they use the word “socialist” and the word is used primarily as a pejorative.

Yet, perhaps whether one is a socialist or not does not entirely fall outside of a “regime of truth.” Politifact.com defines “socialist” as one who shows “support for ‘governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.’” If we can agree on this definition, then we can certainly say BO is not a socialist, which is why PF rated Rick Perry’s claim that Obama was a socialist a “Pants on Fire.”

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/08/rick-perry/rick-perry-says-barack-obama-socialist/

If we reframe this issue as being one of “truth and power,” then, unfortunately, as a “regime of truth,” Politifact.com does not necessarily have the clout to put the issue to rest.

]]>