Joreth is, well, Joreth. She is a skeptic, a science lover, an atheist, a polyamory activist and so so much more. She not only made her own Baroness costume from liquid latex for her first Dragon Con, but she renovated a school bus from top to bottom. SHE renovated a school bus. I encourage everyone to check out her LiveJournal and her Twitter feed under @Joreth.
So, I’m having a little trouble understanding why people use the phrase “reality-based” to be slanderous. I’ve heard it in several contexts now, but apparently, basing one’s decisions in reality is supposed to be bad? I’m not talking about an inability to enjoy fiction novels or disliking Avatar because it’s “not based in reality”, I’m talking about opinions and decisions regarding how the world works and how one lives one’s life. Shouldn’t those be based in reality? Shouldn’t we be willing to change our minds if the evidence suggests that reality is not the way we want it to be? Is it really preferable to insist that I can fly when all the evidence suggests that I can’t?
So I got a notification about an opinion piece regarding the recent study findings that “abstinence-only education works” (which is not exactly what it says, btw), and the teaser seemed to imply that both that study and a comprehensive-sex-ed study had flaws or was incomplete. OK, not having read either one, I’m willing to accept that as a possibility.
But then it went on to show a distinct anti-liberal bias in its conclusion:
http://www.city-journal.org/2010/eon0204kh.html
So this guy is confusing a liberal political agenda with the scientific-minded and science-based community’s insistence on using evidence to base policy decisions. I also followed the link to both Jay Greene & Maggie Gallagher to see what they had to say about this Head Start report, since I was unfamiliar with either Head Start, or the report on it. I also read the official summary of the report, and it didn’t actually say that “any gains experienced by children in Head Start disappear by the end of first grade”, it said that a bunch of different things, some individual gains not lasting until first grade being one of them. I wrote a letter to the editor, and I’m publishing it here as an Open Letter To the Editor of the City Journal:
As we have shown countless times when a medical treatment has been shown to be ineffective and consequently thrown out, if the studies actually show that Head Start is ineffective, then the reality-based community would most definitely change its tune. That’s what “reality-based” means, y’know, based in reality.
When the evidence is there, the opinions are changed along with the evidence.
If you didn’t hear anything from the reality-based community, it’s probably because the report didn’t make news.
Do not confuse a liberal political agenda with “the reality-based community”. That many liberals are also reality-based does not mean they are interchangeable. One is a political affiliation, the other is a method of evaluation. Many liberals are most definitely not “reality-based”, and many conservatives are.
Having had the chance to skim the report, it’s too simplistic to say that Head Start “doesn’t work”. Rather, the study found certain elements of the program showed significant benefits and other elements of the program had no significant benefits or negative benefits. This is a mixed review, not a negative one, and the results can be used to better refine the program in the future. The study was to determine whether it was better to enroll children at age 3 or at age 4, and compared Head Start students to students who had the opportunity to enroll in other programs, not a comparison between children in Head Start vs. children with no preschool program at all.
“In sum, this report finds that providing access to Head Start has benefits for both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the cognitive, health, and parenting domains, and for 3-year-olds in the social-emotional domain. … Moreover, several subgroups of children in this study experience benefits of Head Start into 1st grade.”
This is a preliminary study, and highlights areas of interest. There are more variables that need to be eliminated to come to any conclusions, but there are several areas here which suggest a modification of the program according to those aspects which do not appear to have a significant impact.
And *that* is a “reality-based” reaction, not a knee-jerk reaction to automatically dismiss or accept a preliminary study based on political affiliation.
I just don’t understand why “reality-based” is a slur. I think George W. Bush said something once about reality having a liberal slant. As the old Point of Inquiry segment used to say, “…rational thinking, science, and secular values, what one advisor to the Bush Administration dismissed as the reality-based community. Who could have imagined that reality would need defenders?”
Something I didn’t say in my letter, and wanted to, but really wouldn’t have benefited my message, was that many liberals are complete and total wackaloons that have no bearing on reality whatsoever, just like many conservatives. Crazy doesn’t care about party lines. Is there really much difference between a fundie Christian letting his kid die because it’s against his religion to visit a doctor, or a Newager letting her kid die because Deepak Chopra said don’t take chemo? Fundies shooting abortion doctors or animal-rights terrorists blowing up labs - same difference, all crazy.
If someone claims to be “reality-based”, you can’t automatically assume their party affiliation. I have a particular bias against the Libertarian party, for instance. I tend to think that the *party* is based on an extremely high degree of naivete. However, I know some people who identify as libertarians who are incredibly grounded in reality, who base their decisions and opinions on the evidence available, and who change their minds when the evidence is there to support the other side. I tend to be socially liberal but economically conservative. I manage to piss off feminists and “traditionalists”, often at the same time.
If someone claims to be “reality-based”, but doesn’t actually follow the evidence, the conclusion is not that “reality-based” isn’t based in reality, it’s that the individual is using the wrong label. Just like a Catholic who is pro-abortion, birth control, divorce and re-marriage isn’t actually a Catholic according to the definition, regardless of personal use of the label. Just like a monogamist who has extra-marital sexual relationships isn’t actually a monogamist, even if they can manage some complicated definition-altering that concludes that sex with prostitutes doesn’t count.
By definition, the “reality-based” community is a community who is based in reality. Period. If the evidence shows something, then that’s what the community goes with. If new, robust, conclusive evidence shows something different, then the community changes its collective mind. But if the evidence is preliminary, ambiguous, sketchy, or dubious, then the community may reserve judgment temporarily.
And disagreeing with you does not automatically make the reality-based community “all in the framing”. It may just mean that you’re wrong.
The only time I have found “reality based” to be perceived as a negative term is in connection with politics ala your Bush quote.
I first came across the term while training in martial arts – prior to refining my skepticism and coming out as a Big S skeptic.
Reality based martial arts training means basing your training on real world, threats and risks. Everything from functional fitness training to participating in scenarios/simulations that get as close to the real world situation as possible.
Funny that Bush would be critical of reality based approach, the Armed forces have been using it since 1915. Mind you the result of not using it usually results in people dying.
That was not the first time I had heard it as a pejorative and I still don’t understand it. I have been told by coworkers and by people in polyamory message boards (whenever someone wants to bring up spirituality and polyamory) that “reality-based” is a negative, for a variety of different reasons. I wish I could explain that position more thoroughly to those who have not encountered it, but I just do not understand it, and that prevents me from presenting their side clearly.
As you say, the result of not using a reality-based approach usually results in people dying. But the terms “reality-based medicine” and “reality-based community” come under attack from people who like their illusions and do not appreciate having their illusions shattered, even if it means a lower death toll. The hurt pride from being wrong is, apparently, stronger than the desire not to die, or something.
Do the perceive the “reality based” community to be lacking in warmth or emotion?