The main thing that concerns most people is not seeing any steenkin' facts that cast doubt on their own opinon, whatever it is.

You're not really in a position to decide about anything till you've got ALL the relevant facts. And few people do.

What most people do is this: they hunt up whatever facts seem to support their viewpoint. Those opposing them hunt up other facts which seem to support the opposing viewpoint. Those with yet a third viewpoint hunt up still more facts that seem to support that viewpoint.

Only somone who has ALL the known and relevant facts, and in their order of importance...not just those facts that appear to help his argument...is in a position to figure out what's actually going on...assuming he wants to.

Most people are surprisingly unreceptive to facts that don't seem to help their cause.

I'm taking no particular side in the foregoing comments from the last 15 or 20 posters when I say that....I'm just taking note of what people generally seem to do whenever they argue a position. They select only the facts they like for close attention rather like a Dachshund picks the meat chunks out of the kibble... ;-) They show very little interest in the facts that don't prove helpful to their argument.

Thus are carefully selected facts trotted out to support every opinion and proposition under the sun. Hitler used various facts to justify his crazy policies, sprinkling them among many falsehoods, exaggerations, and utter misconceptions. It always helps to throw in a few real facts. It makes you sound quite convincing.

Every demagogue in history has done it. Facts CAN be used to back a faulty proposition...you just have to make sure you quote only the specific facts that work for that proposition and ignore or discount the ones that don't. This is a key tactic in all effective propaganda. It has surely been used by every government that ever existed, I would think. As a matter of fact, it's a standard debating tactic.   The important thing is to "sound" right. Quoting a few facts will work wonders in that direction.

If you also believe you ARE right...and most people naturally do...then you will quote your few carefully selected facts with such absolute assurance that you may succeed in convincing not only yourself, but many others as well, that your ENTIRE message is right and complete.

All politicians need to study this technique carefully. Self-deception is a very powerful tool in achieving the deception (or conversion) of others. No demagogue succeeds as well as the man who actually believes his own lies, exaggerations, and ommissions even as he utters them! And I have seen this in action...yessirree. It's quite common. People who do it are generally quite unconscious of what they are doing, because they're so caught up in the process of winning their point.

Thus are facts used to obfuscate. Much better than just making up stuff. Get the facts! But make sure you get only the facts that help YOU.

That's what Google is for. ;-D