Intellectual Infrastructure

I do not have quite enough functioning Intellectual Infrastructure to make a reasonable post on the Inauguration and the Womens' March quite yet. I know everybody else does... even Madonna who jumped into the Violent Scenario mosh pit by talking about exploding White Houses.

So sad.

However, Kellyanne Conway to the rescue.

Yahoo
Merriam-Webster trolls Kellyanne Conway for calling falsehoods ‘alternate facts’
https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/merriam-webster-trolls-kellyanne-conway-190640412.html

Kellyanne Conway made headlines this weekend for rebranding the White House’s false information about Donald Trump’s inauguration crowds as “alternative facts.” So, the social media team behind the Merriam-Webster Dictionary felt the need to clarify the definition of the word “fact.”

Linking to a trending topic page for Conway’s quote, Merriam-Webster tweeted, “A fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality.”

A fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality. https://t.co/gCKRZZm23c

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) January 22, 2017

On Saturday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer scolded reporters during a press briefing for spreading what he deemed falsities about Trump’s inauguration, according to CNN. “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” he said, despite contrary findings from aerial photos, Nielsen ratings, and Metro reports on subway riders in Washington, D.C.

During a Sunday interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Conway defended Spicer’s false claims as “alternative facts.”

“You’re saying it’s a falsehood, and they’re giving — Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that,” she said. Host Chuck Todd countered, “Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods.”

Ms. Conway seems to be a Presidential-Election-Campaign-Manager-Autistic savant, sort of like the Rain Man of politics. She is a wiz at the campaign stuff, but a bit hazy when matters diverge from reading polls and getting out voters.

Furthermore, if Alternative Facts is acceptable ontologically and philosophically, then Alt-Right would seem to be next in line clamoring for acceptance.

Almost as bad as exploding White Houses.

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