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Anecdotes vs. Data

Posted by BLin on April 17th, 2009

While we’re on the topic of healthcare, I’ve been struck by some dissimilarities I’ve noticed between the approach to blogging about healthcare by Andrew Sullivan (conservative) and Ezra Klein (liberal).  The former has been posting numerous dispatches from various individuals on the front lines of the American healthcare system, which is valuable information, but it really shouldn’t be dispositive.  The latter has been posting studies that provide data, which I would consider to be more valuable information, because it represents a much larger picture of what is occuring.

Then it struck me that this is somewhat typical of Conservative vs. Liberal debates.  Conservatives bring anecdotes, philosophy, and logic.  Liberals bring data.  This is perhaps the major reason I side with liberals on most issues.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Some Pulp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

One Response to “Anecdotes vs. Data”

  1. April 17th, 2009 at 10:39 pm

    colin says:

    That is an excellent observation. Thinking back to several arguments in general, whether they are proposed on blogs, reported on conservative news shows, or even put forward by the candidates / officials themselves, there always seems to be more anecdotal reporting and information from the conservative side in general. Which is, as you said, not the way I think or would like to argue.

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