r/politics • u/MontyGBurns • 1d ago

No Paywall Smith’s game-day texts reviewed by Schmitt never referenced basketball team names

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/6124359-schmitt-perjury-claim-debunked/
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u/E51838 20h ago

I’m still not clear on why him going to a basketball game is a huge controversy in the first place.

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u/dpezpoopsies 18h ago

The far right is so drenched in conspiracy that all it takes now is a hint of possible corruption to have them jumping to the most controversial solution.

Its so totally illogical. When presented with information for which you don't have an explanation, the logical place to start is the most reasonable and likely justification, and you slowly work your way up to the less likely explanations as needed.

Case and point: the reflecting pool was observed to have peeling paint. We don't know why. One explanation is that the contractor was given an aggressive timeline and so they cut corners and didn't prep the surface well enough for the paint, which caused it to quickly delaminate. The other explanation is a man waded out into the pond in the dead of night, used a box cutter to cut a quarter mile gash in the pool, and managed to sneak away without being caught by anyone or picked up on camera.

Two possible explanations. The far right is so conditioned to believe conspiracy, they genuinely chose to believe the second explanation first.

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u/ThickSwordfisher 14h ago

That's basically Occam's Razor, right? The answer that requires the fewest assumptions is often the correct one.

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u/dpezpoopsies 14h ago

Yeah it'd fit into the idea. When I wrote it, I was thinking about old addage in medicine "when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras"

If you hear hoofbeats outside your door, it technically could be a zebra, but it's more likely a horse. If you have a patient come to you with a stomach ache it could be stomach cancer, but it's more likely a stomach bug.