On 31/10/16 07:57, Brian Gaff wrote:
Bias is a fact of life.

NO, Brian, but prejudice is.

And there is a very good reason.

Data storage. The human mind cannot store and process all the data it
has access to, and a huge part of what it does is compress enormous
amounts of data into 'filters' that have names.

'blind' is such a filter. 'blind' is a quick'n'dirty category in which
to bung anyone with pretty impaired vision. For most purposes its good
enough. Of course you as a 'blind' person with a particular form of
visual impairment will protest that this is a very blunt instrument
indeed, however the rest of the world to a large extent doesn't have
time for '50 kinds of snow'. It's snow, that's all.

That is prejudice, that is necessary. Bias is not necessary. Bias
happens when people deliberately ignore the fact of their own prejudice
by refusing to admit there is another side, or that their categories are
in any need of refinement..



--
The biggest threat to humanity comes from socialism, which has utterly
diverted our attention away from what really matters to our existential
survival, to indulging in navel gazing and faux moral investigations
into what the world ought to be, whilst we fail utterly to deal with
what it actually is.