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Editor's note
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For several years, I’ve been aware – both as a journalist and a citizen – that talking about politics often means disagreement. And not arguments about different opinions – arguments about basic facts.
Luckily, there are political scientists who can take that passing observation and look into it more deeply. That’s what scholars David C. Barker of American University and Morgan Marietta of UMass Lowell have done. In their story today, they look at how the public’s reaction to the Mueller report has taken two forms – “Total exoneration!” and “Impeach Trump!” They use that as a prime example of the
dueling facts phenomenon: the “tendency for Red and Blue America to perceive reality in starkly different ways.”
This isn’t just a parlor game. Barker and Marietta say it’s is a growing problem for democracy in America: If people can’t agree on facts, how can they ever solve the nation’s problems?
Today we also have great reads on how fluid dynamics explains sudden dips in the stock market, why the IRS probably won’t cough up President Trump’s tax returns and why writers “return again and again to alchemy.”
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Naomi Schalit
Senior Editor, Politics + Society
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Top story
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Can a country move ahead when its citizens all hold dueling facts?
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David C. Barker, American University School of Public Affairs; Morgan Marietta, University of Massachusetts Lowell
How can a community decide the direction it should go, if its members cannot even agree on where they are? Two political scientists say the growing phenomenon of dueling facts threatens democracy.
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Economy + Business
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Philip Hackney, University of Pittsburgh
While the Treasury secretary says House Democrats lack a 'legitimate' reason for demanding Trump's tax returns, a former IRS attorney explains that the law says otherwise.
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Romesh Saigal, University of Michigan; Abdullah AlShelahi, University of Michigan
Thanks to new trading technology, sudden steep falls may become more common. A new program uses the principles of fluid dynamics to try to predict crashes before they happen.
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Science + Technology
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Dominic Saebeler, University of Illinois at Springfield; Manimaran Govindarasu, Iowa State University
Electric utilities have a right to make money on their government-granted monopolies, but customers also have a right to know what cyber-protections they would get if they paid more.
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Felice Frankel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Using an artistic eye when creating pictures of scientific phenomena and new technologies can elevate the resulting images in terms of both their beauty and how informative they are.
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Elisabeth Gruner, University of Richmond
Potions, spells and alchemy are intriguing to children and adults alike. A professor of literature explains what's behind this fascination and reveals where to experience the magic of transformation.
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Most read on site
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Jordan Brasher, University of Tennessee
The Confederate flag debate has arrived to Brazil, pitting black activists against the Brazilian descendants of soldiers who fled the South after the Civil War.
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David Swenson, Iowa State University
Since the Great Recession, most of the nation's rural counties have struggled to recover lost jobs and retain their people.
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Richard G. "Bugs" Stevens, University of Connecticut
Humans have natural cycles for when they are active and for when they sleep. Modern work and school schedules interfere with this, and more studies are showing why there's a possible health risk.
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