Trying to Think Like an Asshole
So here's a dilemma: Three professors out here authored a study that went back and quantified the amount of bias displayed by figure skating judges over the years. They found that judges noticeably favor skaters from their own countries. And during the Cold War, the East and West tended to sandbag each other's skaters, although the U.S. and Soviet judges tended to mark the others skaters on the level. When I went to put this in the article, I was left with two competing clauses
1. judges from the Eastern bloc often gave lower scores to skaters from NATO countries, and vice versa.
2. judges from NATO countries often gave lower scores to skaters from the Eastern bloc, and vice versa.
They are, of course, the exact same clause. Except that in the world of media watchdogs this is clearly an issue. Clause 2 shows the NATO powers as the hatchet men and letting the other one off with a vice versa. Clause 1 is American triumphalism, as if to say, look at who the cheaters were, those Godless Communists. I actually spent five minutes going over this and trying to pick out which one was the least charged. I ended up going with Clause 1, but I fear I did so for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes I hate the Internet.
1. judges from the Eastern bloc often gave lower scores to skaters from NATO countries, and vice versa.
2. judges from NATO countries often gave lower scores to skaters from the Eastern bloc, and vice versa.
They are, of course, the exact same clause. Except that in the world of media watchdogs this is clearly an issue. Clause 2 shows the NATO powers as the hatchet men and letting the other one off with a vice versa. Clause 1 is American triumphalism, as if to say, look at who the cheaters were, those Godless Communists. I actually spent five minutes going over this and trying to pick out which one was the least charged. I ended up going with Clause 1, but I fear I did so for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes I hate the Internet.
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