Althouse: I just noticed I have a tag "I was wrong."

January 13, 2013

I just noticed I have a tag "I was wrong."

I've only used it once.

I'll use it again for this post, and if you click on it, you see that I only once commemorated my wrongness with the official "I was wrong" tag.

34 comments:

Hagar said...: Well, that is one more (or two) than we get from most professors.; 1/13/13, 3:10 PM
jd said...: You should use it a lot more, because you're wrong a lot. Debate ear pieces, Romney yard sign feelings, blood clots. You often tell commenters who don't agree with you to "take a look at yourself," but you rarely follow your own advice. Might be worth doing going forward.; 1/13/13, 3:11 PM
Beldar said...: Conceding mistakes improves one's credibility.

The strategy depends on first being able to recognize them in hindsight. I don't think that's why you haven't been using this tag, though. I think when you created it, you expected that in future it would become a sort of referential footnote to be often repeated.

So like so many of us on so many matters, your intention was good but your execution could stand improvement. Good luck to us all on that in the future.; 1/13/13, 3:14 PM
jd said...: @hagar--I never had a professor in law school who was unwilling to come back to class and say, "I took a look at the case/statute/whatever and I was wrong." I don't know althouse in a classroom, but I suspect based on her adherence to her positions on this blog in the face of clear facts, she isn't so willing to abandon her hubris in any context.; 1/13/13, 3:16 PM
Anonymous said...: A tag we all need to use now and again. Being stubborn is a curse and a blessing.; 1/13/13, 3:22 PM
ndspinelli said...: Narcissists almost never admit they're wrong. And you are an elitist, narcissist. This is merely Exhibit 44,523.; 1/13/13, 3:25 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Well, if I thought I was wrong while writing the post I would change what I was saying.

The reason the wrongness problem doesn't come up a lot -- here or in class -- is that I'm careful in how I put things and I don't make assertions about things I don't know. There are many alternatives to use and I'm savvy about using them, for example, asking questions, saying "it seems to me, based on what I've seen so far," or "one could argue" or endless other ways to introduce ideas.

It also helps to enjoy looking at and even playing with ideas and to have a love for debate and lack of interest in controlling other people or commitment to an ideology. I've got all that, probably much more that most/all of the other people you know.; 1/13/13, 3:27 PM
ndspinelli said...: Bullshitt..bullsssshit.fuck no...Sorry, my Tourettes meds haven't been working of late.

I'm ok now. Inga, stubborness and stupidity are Irish twins.; 1/13/13, 3:30 PM
ndspinelli said...: Althouse, You just provided Exhibit 44,524.; 1/13/13, 3:32 PM
Baron Zemo said...: I thought you put the "I was wrong" tag on the thread where you announced that you voted for Obama?

Maybe you should go back and add it?; 1/13/13, 3:34 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/13/13, 3:47 PM
jd said...: @althouse. What was I saying about hubris? You've got to be kidding me.; 1/13/13, 3:51 PM
Moose said...: I see you didn't use that tag on any of your "I voted for Obama" posts...; 1/13/13, 3:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Good God, Althouse. Pull down your vanity just a bit. Like a freaking insufferable schoolgirl.; 1/13/13, 3:56 PM
Moose said...: I see you didn't use that tag on any of your "I voted for Obama" posts...; 1/13/13, 4:07 PM
Anonymous said...: So, if you say, in effect, "Maybe I'm wrong" at the beginning of each statement of opinion you avoid ever having to say "I was wrong"? Weak sauce Althouse. Or one could argue so.; 1/13/13, 4:13 PM
Anonymous said...: So, if you say, in effect, "Maybe I'm wrong" at the beginning of each statement of opinion you avoid ever having to say "I was wrong"?

More accurately, she could start many posts with: "The monkeys that just flew out of my ass told me to say the following"; 1/13/13, 4:27 PM
edutcher said...: Hmmm...

A step toward self-awareness is always good.; 1/13/13, 4:41 PM
MayBee said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/13/13, 5:06 PM
jungatheart said...: I'm sensing a new game plan for a new year.; 1/13/13, 5:38 PM
ndspinelli said...: The only truth that comes out of this post is that when you appoint yourself the judge and jury and declare only being wrong once, then you're a fraud. And, I just appointed myself the judge of fraud. This is fun!!; 1/13/13, 6:40 PM
ken in tx said...: The only time I was ever wrong was when I thought I was wrong. That was wrong.; 1/13/13, 7:53 PM
bagoh20 said...: If you rarely stumble, then you aren't pushing yourself very hard.

Or another explanation would be that when we see a mistake it's really just that you meant to do that.; 1/13/13, 8:39 PM
sakredkow said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/13/13, 9:09 PM
MadisonMan said...: Given your anti-tagging proclivities, it seems that making a tag I was wrong and using it only once in several years was, well, wrong.; 1/13/13, 9:26 PM
Thers said...: Why don't you apologize for slandering GWPDA? That was pretty damn wrong.; 1/14/13, 1:12 AM
Thers said...: The reason the wrongness problem doesn't come up a lot -- here or in class -- is that I'm careful in how I put things and I don't make assertions about things I don't know.

Garbage. And you know it.; 1/14/13, 1:14 AM
AllenS said...: Ann Althouse said...
The reason the wrongness problem doesn't come up a lot -- here or in class -- is that I'm careful in how I put things and I don't make assertions about things I don't know.

I've noticed that when you've posted about legal situations here, is that you never comment on them as to their legality. Are you afraid to comment on case law? Do you just bring it to your class's (or us) attention and then leave it at that?

More than once, I've asked you to comment on something that you've brought up, but you've never responded. Are you afraid make assertions about things you don't know?; 1/14/13, 6:15 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Gee - I never told you that, right?

Riiiight.

But you'll (also) never admit it to me directly, will you? Or try to make amends? No - never.

Because you're never wrong.

What a hypocrite.

And people wonder why there's so many divorces, and/or why so many divorces - the soul-searing experiences that they are - are initiated by women. Women who simply can't admit they're wrong.

Fuck having Meade work in the garden. His participation in your life - and yours in his - is to paper over these two sentences:

"I just noticed I have a tag 'I was wrong.' I've only used it once."

You two even "made up" your own marriage vows so as to not be trapped by real ones that bind - like the one that says you can only marry once? Never have to admit you're wrong, then, will you?

Losers.

NewAge narcissism is so ugly - simply a cultural cancer of our times,...; 1/14/13, 7:11 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: edutcher,

Hmmm...

A step toward self-awareness is always good.

Yeah, but how many people has she hurt and slandered "on the road" to her self-awareness?

Man, it's been so nice to know I can be a prop/pin-cushion for Ann's personal growth,...; 1/14/13, 7:13 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: AllenS,

Are you afraid make assertions about things you don't know?

No, NewAgers - like all believers - are afraid to admit there ARE things they don't know - it's all about projecting the image of competency.

She and Glenn Reynolds are idiots, in a sense, cloistered, and yet babbling on about that which they don't understand as though they do, and ignoring any comment (and commenter) that boxes them in.

Unless, of course, they can wait for the rest of you lames to defend them, first. Then they simply let you do the work for them - which still equals Ann and Glenn not engaging the issues they don't like - and looking smart about it.

Works like a charm,...; 1/14/13, 7:23 AM
Baron Zemo said...: Don't be a cornball brother Crack!; 1/14/13, 1:55 PM
Crunchy Frog said...: Yeah, but how many people has she hurt and slandered "on the road" to her self-awareness?

Just means Step 9 is going to be a mighty long one.; 1/14/13, 5:05 PM
President-Mom-Jeans said...: Crack is back?

Is there a mormon with the potential to hold a government office that drove you back from self imposed exile?; 1/14/13, 7:15 PM