Classic Case of Bias Confirmation...

I have not hidden the fact that I have been intrigued with the writings of Scott Adams as it pertains to subjects like persuasion, bias confirmation, cognitive dissonance, and the fact that different people can view the exact same events but see completely different realities. Or as Adams would say, they are viewing the same scenes play out...  but actually watching different movies.

I think the recent late night tweets from the President regarding the alleged Government monitoring of communications of Trump Towers is maybe one of the most glaring examples of the same events being seen as completely different realities.

Movie one:  This view is based on the preconceived idea that Donald Trump is an overgrown adolescent, with limited intelligence, who is on the verge of a complete mental breakdown. It's quite obviously the consensus among those in the main stream media (who are mostly anti-Trump).

In this movie, the crazy old man probably was up late at night reading the right wing blogs, ran across some of the allegations regarding FICA warrants (quite possibly Mark Levin), and impulsively sent out a barrage of tweets making completely unfounded allegations.

Movie two:  This view is based on the preconceived idea that Donald Trump is reasonable person, with reasonable to intelligence, who has become a successful businessman, author, reality television producer and star, and was able to win both the GOP nomination and the general election. While this is a minority view in the media at this point, it happens to be the opinion of several people whom I personally view as being both prudent (and mostly historically correct in their positions).

In this movie, the combined buzz from the NY Times story about how Obama had been intercepting communications, declassifying information, leaving bread crumb, etc... along with the renewed media buzz regarding the two FICA requests, sent the Trump team into action to verify and/or clarify what they could find out. In this movie, Trump is the President, Jeff Sessions is the Attorney General, and the validity of the FICA warrant story could be ascertained fairly quickly. Given Sessions had just met with Trump, the tweets regarding "just found out" were not in response to any blog post he read in the middle of the night, but more likely a response to what he had been told by the Attorney General.

_______

Now what is interesting here, is that those who are watching the first movie, don't even take into consideration the possibility that the second movie is even playing. They are so convinced of Trump's incompetence that the idea that he would have gone through the logical channels available to him to verify these claims doesn't even enter their brains. They still don't consider that such channels would be used by the President to verify even after the fact. In their minds, the claims will always be unfounded. 

On the flip side, those who are watching the second movie, do acknowledge the possibility that Trump may have just tweeted off the cuff but find it to be the less likely scenario here. They also point out that even had the original tweets were not based on any confirmed information, that the chances of the administration not taking the actions (after tweet) to confirm the existence or non-existence of said FICA warrants is next to zero. Either way, the President knows today if these FICA requests do or do not exist. The media does not. 

Which movie are you watching?