When I was in law school, I took a required course in evidence. I didn’t realize at the time how important that course would turn out to be, not only for my later career as a trial lawyer, but also in providing me with the critical thinking skills needed to navigate life in general.
Opinion
The evidence course taught me not only how to evaluate claims that lawyers make in trials, but also how to evaluate claims made by people in public discourse. Is the testimony based on eyewitness accounts, or is it hearsay? Is the document presented true and accurate, or has it been altered or wholly fabricated? Does the speaker have a bias or a grudge? If so, can the speaker’s words be corroborated with reliable independent information? Is the speaker presenting facts or opinions?
The concepts I learned in evidence not only helped me be an effective trial lawyer, but also a responsible citizen. I often tell people that I don’t believe anything I’m told unless the claim can be proven in court with admissible evidence. And then I go looking for that evidence.
Stated another way, the course in evidence has helped me sharpen and fine-tune my personal Bull Excrement Detector, or BED. Every thinking person should have a well-tuned BED so that public discourse can be based on reliable, factual information, rather than what is now very commonly put into the world by people who could be classified as overperforming Bull Excrement Purveyors, or BEPs.
It distresses me greatly how the proliferation of BEPs has nearly destroyed public discourse these days. Everywhere you turn, one encounters numerous false claims spewed out in high volume from the BEPs: The 2020 election was stolen! The hush money trial was rigged! Biden’s justice department is engaged in a political witch hunt! There is no such thing as a transgender person, there are only males and females!
None of those claims, or any of the other nonsense spewed from the far-right BEPs, can be proven in a court of law through admissible evidence. Rather, it is all gaslighting: If you repeat lies loudly and often enough, even in the face of all of the competent evidence stacked against the claim, you can get people to believe it.
Gaslighting is not only dishonest, it is dangerous to democracy. Good public policy decisions depend on good, honest debates between people with sincere but different points of view. If we can agree on what the facts are, we can bring our different perspectives to bear on those facts and debate what they mean. But until we can agree on what the facts are, we have no common foundation to even begin a discussion.
I encourage everybody to renovate and tune up their personal BEDs. Before making a public statement, run it through your BED. Is your statement based on competent evidence that would be admissible in a court of law? If so, lay out that evidence for your audience to see and evaluate. Then engage in respectful discourse with people whose statements also pass the BED test. We can all learn from each other, and reach good decisions if we do this.
There must be a limit to “replies” in the comments, so I’ll comment here. To Rob Dickerson. At least 6 members of the trump administration used personal email accounts for official business. Betsy DeVos, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, KT McFarland, Stephen Miller, Reince Priebus, and Gary Cohn. This is particularly hypocritical as Trump campaigned on Hillary Clinton’s use. You know, “Lock her up”.
Mr. Hur (A Trump appointee) did make the comment that Biden would be hard to convict because he comes across as a “well meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. Of course Trump is in the same boat, or age class. Mr. Hur also stated that “Trump refused to return the documents and obstructed justice.” Just as I said. “We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted”-against J. Biden. A big nothing burger.
Bidens lap top was used in court. The emails were found to be Hunter Bidens, but the other files are suspect-your can of worms. I would compare it to the Steele dossier, the one that showed collusion between Russia and The trump campaign.
That’s what the media/news used to do. Now they are both funded by evangelic or environgelic dark money.
Sounds pretty accurate to me. My BS detector has been working overtime lately. Chuck Gray needs to shut up.
Sage advice Ken. Thank you. It doesn’t matter too much the origin of the excrement in question–be it equus,or elephas– If you shovel enough of the stuff you learn to keep your mouth shut, your back to the wind, and most importantly you always look twice before you take a step…
You would think that if the 2020 Presidential election was rigged and stolen from Trump it would have involved many thousands of people taking part in the steal. I’m still waiting for someone to spill their guts and admit to taking part in the theft. So far crickets.
The cheating begins with state’s governors and attorney generals requiring federal ballots to be mailed to ALL registered voters and ALL drivers licensed by department of motor vehicle records. The U.S. Constitution states, “Each State shall appoint in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors…..” State’s governors and attorney generals are not state’s LEGISLATURES!! They are not entitled to make voting laws!!! They’re supposed to ENFORCE voting laws. This includes, in most states, removing dead people, criminals, non-state residents, and non-citizens from voter rolls! You’ve just got to listen to hear the crickets!
Which State Governors and Attorney Generals have required ballots to be sent to voters without consent of their respective state Legislatures? As far as I know mail in balloting precedes the 2020 election in most states that have it, so why weren’t those previous elections corrupted? Wyoming even had mail in balloting in the 2020 election. Were Wyoming’s 2020 election results rigged?
I used to get 6-8 years out of my 1980 model ACME ™ Bullsh_t Detector before it needed refurbishment. Then Trump came into office and the dang thing overheats and burns out every couple months. The readout says there are between 40 and 50 million sources of emission , nearly all mapped to so-called Red States and known MAGA hives.
Living in Wyoming so close to Montana , I may have to start a Go Fund Me just to keep up from now till December.
Hilarious! Your Acme only detects Trump bull****? You need it recalibrated back to True North.
I very much agree with professor Chestek’s admonition that everyone should “renovate and tune up their personal BEDs.” However, the professor’s examples of gaslighting were strictly selected from the perspective of one who represents the political-left. He conveniently ignores BS from the far left such as “no one is above the law,” ” Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian disinformation” and “Climate change is the MOST existential threat to mankind!” If he is sincere in his admonition to critically evaluate information, he shouldn’t limit his examples from a one-sided perspective. In fact, my second example of left-wing BS is NOT…..”nonsense spewed from the far-right BEPs.” It is this very day being proven in a court of law through “admissible evidence.”
Well if you are going to name things that have no proof as something he forgot, I challenge you to find the facts and you step up and stop gaslighting and prove the named issues are factual. And don’t use things similar to the 2000 mules lying fiasco as your proof. Actual data that is verified and audited
OK, Sheryl….if the WyoFile editor(s) will permit………I’ll try to do this quickly and keep it very limited and specific:
1. Joe Biden obtained classified documents to which he had access before he became POTUS. Those documents turned-up in his garage. That’s a violation of “Title 18 U.S.C. 1924 – Unauthorized Removal and Retention of Classified Documents or Material.” He remains unindicted.
1.a. Hillary Clinton notoriously conducted federal business from an unsecured server in her private residence. The FBI acknowledged some of he transmissions contained classified information. That’s a violation of several federal codes, especially those detailed in Title 18 U.S.C. 798 -Disclosure of Classified Information.” She also famously destroyed those Congressionally subpoenaed records, which is a violation of Section 1812 of Title 18. She will never be indicted.
I learned the laws pertaining to the protection of classified information while serving as an Air Force Intelligence Officer, and I took many a life-style polygraph and was subject to routine background checks to help detect any violations of law.
2. Hunter Biden’s laptop, which the political Left’s pundits first claimed didn’t exist…and then claimed it was a “plant” by Russia to discredit the Biden family….has been entered into and accepted as evidence by the court now presiding over his current prosecution. Apparently, it’s very real! You can check a multitude of news outlets you trust to verify this!
3. Climate Change and Global Warming are my favorite topics. Since I can’t copy and paste any useful charts that relate actual scientific data into WyoFile comments, I’ll have to provide you with a Wikipedia web address that re-publishes excellent graphs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_atmosphere . Please be sure to scroll all the way down to “Concentrations in the geologic past.” Despite the recent up-tick in atmospheric carbon dioxide, it still only amounts to 120 parts per million of the “norm” that existed over the past several million years. And over Earth’s planetary history, we’re still experiencing an almost all-time carbon LOW! Plants that provide us with the oxygen we require need carbon dioxide to do that! Perhaps nuclear warfare, famine, disease, or an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, just might represent greater “existential threats” to mankind’s existence!
My earth science education was enhanced while working nine years for the USDA-FS R2 HQ, while actually assigned to the Central Region HQ of the USGS. It’s located in the same building as the National Core Facility on the Denver Federal Center. The Core Lab’ is still there.
I hope this addresses your “challenge; it IS a difficult task in this limited forum. And I have other things to do in my retirement!!
So I have to say that my BED alarm went off when I read your comment.
Can you provide a source for your assertion that Hunter Biden’s laptop was accepted as evidence in his criminal trial? So said I could find “multiple sources” for that claim if I looked, but I did look and could find none.
And it doesn’t surprise me that I could find none, because I can’t imagine what information on that laptop would be relevant to the current trial. And from what I know about the laptop, I wonder how any judge would rule it admissible, since there is a gigantic chain of custody issue with it. The laptop was apparently out of Biden’s control for months, and there is evidence that it was tampered with while out of his control, making it basically impossible to authenticate any information on it. I.e., inadmissible evidence, failing the standard that I suggest in my op-ed.
Sorry, bad proofreading. “Nine” should be “none.”
I try and take anything from the media with a grain of salt – there is so much bias in both directions anymore. But my BS meter went off regarding Hunter’s laptop. DOJ just used the laptop as evidence in Biden’s criminal gun possession trial and FBI agent Erika Jensen attested to the laptops authenticity. Just to be safe, I focused my short research into liberal media outlets – and even CNN reported the laptops use in the trial. And the FBI agent testified that the laptop was not tampered with…….Funny, a story on BS with BS…….go figure.
Ok, for some reason I am unable to reply to Rob Dickerson’s comment below, so I will post my reply here.
Yesterday’s New York Times (a reliable new medium) did include a reference to Hunter’s laptop being used in his Delaware trial. (I think the article was posted *after* my reply above.) Here is what the Times had to say about the laptop in the trial:
“A prosecutor briefly held up the laptop before the jury in Delaware, and an F.B.I. agent later testified that messages and photos on it and in personal data that Mr. Biden had saved in cloud computing servers had made his drug use clear.”
Fine. My point still stands. The laptop was admitted for a very limited purpose: to corroborate Hunter’s drug addiction problem. He didn’t even dispute that addiction. But admitting it for that very limited purpose does not validate that everything on the laptop is considered reliable; indeed, the article reports that much of the information on the laptop remains hotly disputed, and that various government officials consider the laptop to have the hallmarks of a “Russian information campaign.” So no, the “laptop” in general is not admissible evidence for most of what it purportedly contains, and a lot of what is on it has been reliably debunked.
Please don’t cherry-pick information and distort it to make a claim which the information does not support.
#1. Joe Biden returned the documents when asked, Trump didn’t. He deserves what he’s getting.
#1a. Yes Hillary did that. So did Ivanka Trump. Should we indict her.
2. Hunter Bidens laptop is considered by top intelligence agents to be Russian disinformation.
3. Climate denier. You’re and outlier.
1a. Joe Biden will not be prosecuted because the Special Counsel determined he is too old and mentally frail to face charges. According to Robert Hur, Special Counsel. Biden never had authority to store those documents haphazardly in his garage next to his Corvette.
1b. Hilary did that while Secretary of State with confidential material on a private server to avoid public disclosure of her activities while serving as a government official. I do not recall Ivank Trump serving in such a prominent position with access to confidential material – the need to destroy government information/documents.
2. DOJ just used the laptop as part of the evidence against Hunter Biden in his criminal trial. An FBI Agent attested it had not been tampered with. I’m sure those 50 top intelligence agents are feeling quite snookered by the Biden administration right now.
3. I’ll pass on this comment. Only so many cans to open at one time.
Used to be that WyoFile actually fact checked the comments to avoid misinformation. I guess they do not do that anymore. You can state anything you want as fact even if it is proven not to be a Russian hoax.
Your “retirement” consists of posting fox news talking points on damn near every article.
You might enjoy your retirement a bit more if you dropped the angry old guy shtick.
Robert Koller- you just pegged the needle on my BS detector.
Agree. There is an equal amount of BS coming from the far left and the professor conveniently failed to mention any of it. Rather biased I’d say.
Yep
90% REPO, 10% Dem
Not republican ≠ far left.
The excessive hubris shown by conspiracy theory believing chrumpers has negated what little integrity they had left. That hubris has interfered with the integrity necessary to admit when one is wrong in their beliefs.
GIGO
Yep
Thank you for a well-written argument against what I call the Disinformation Age.
Hear! Hear!
There is a huge increase in argumentative posts on political sites, many of which have only a few followers or friends and were last used before the last election. Don’t engage with them! Report them.
Practical advice. Good job!
We have three severe BEP’s in congress, and several in the state legislature, as well as our secretary of state.
Amen… they just add to the chaos…
spoken like a true democrat.
Yep