Fact Checkers Are Getting Dumber

The stupidity singularity is approaching quickly

Another day that ends in Y means another day “fact checkers” are confused about what facts really are.

The latest comes from another AOC gem.

Politifact determines that this claim is backed by data.

To wit

Using data from six Medicaid and nine SNAP agencies across 11 states, researchers found that Walmart is one of the country’s top employers of Medicaid and SNAP recipients. In three states, Walmart is estimated to be the No. 1 employer of Medicaid recipients, and in five states, the company is the No. 1 employer of SNAP recipients. In the remaining states, it ranked in the top five.

Do you see any problem here? If not let me explain with another hypothetical.

They are eating the dogs and cats in Springfield Ohio because they often eat dogs and cats in Haiti, and Joe Biden imported as many illegal Haitians as he could.

-Donald Trump

Now imagine politifact responded with the following.

There is data to back Trumps assertion. Per recent reports from ICE the Haitian population in Springfield Ohio has grown dramatically.

OK sure, but that has nothing to do with whether or not they are eating dogs and cats. Likewise, yes, Walmart has a lot of employees receiving welfare benefits, but the claim wasn’t that Walmart has a lot of employees on welfare. The claim was SNAP benefits are really a form of corporate welfare benefiting Walmart. The data they suggest supports AOC’s claim has nothing at all to do with her claim.

It isn’t even remarkable that Walmart has more welfare recipients among employees because they are, you know, the largest private employer in America.

As the largest employer they would almost by definition have among the largest number of employees in any category.

Most former high school band clarinet players.

Most flower gardeners

Most employees who believe in the loch ness monster.

A corollary would be a claim along the lines of

Walmart forces its employees to engage in pagan rituals worshipping the loch ness monster followed by politifact declaring the claim is “backed by data”

For example

researchers found that Walmart is one of the country’s top employers of loch ness monster worshippers. In three states, Walmart is estimated to be the No. 1 employer of loch ness monster worshippers, and in five states, the company is the No. 1 employer of loch ness monster worshippers. In the remaining states, it ranked in the top five.

Ultimately they don’t even show that walmart is somehow overrepresented in terms of subsidized employees. If anything they might be underrepresented given

1. Walmart exists in heavily rural and poorer areas.

2. About half of their workers are part time.

Its just hard to understand what they think the data is backing up here.

But the real test as to whether SNAP, and Medicaid are really corporate welfare is to ask a simple question to AOC or people who believe as she does.

Here’s the question.

If social welfare spending is really corporate welfare why not just eliminate it?

AOC herself has been pretty clear she opposes corporate welfare (as do I). If its really Walmart being subsidized then we are just eliminating a corporate handout, and Walmart will finally be forced to pay the wages taxpayers are now taking on.

This of course is a non-starter for obvious reasons, and safe to say AOC wouldn’t champion my suggestion. Thats because Walmart isn’t underpaying based on what those workers can command in a free market absent government subsidizing walmart’s payroll. Rather Walmart is underpaying based on an idealized wish list of what the likes of AOC believe their employees should earn.

Thats all well and good, but a belief like that can’t be “backed by data” because its an ideological position not a factual one. Furthermore framing this as corporate welfare you oppose while resisting attempts to eliminate those payments, as AOC has, is rhetorically dishonest.

Whats even more dishonest is fact checkers providing ideological cover by declaring her position is data driven. It isn’t. Its driven by ideology, ideology our neutral fact checkers over at Politifact obviously agree with.

Again thats fine. Hold whatever values you would like, but lets not call it fact checking. What it really is is narrative policing where fact checkers are pulling a bait and switch here to infuse pure ideology with a veneer of truthiness, and “expert” support by citing data that doesn’t actually support the claim being made.

This will of course allow AOC and her acolytes to triumphantly claim fact checkers support her version of reality. In fact all they are showing is they are ideological fellow travelers wanting to throw her a bone so the midwits on Blue Sky can trumpet that she was right all along.

There is a reason fact checkers are no more trusted than a media machine whose credibility is in tatters. This is yet another exhibit thrown on a huge pile of evidence.