\u202aAt city council meeting last week, City Councillor \u202cBlaine Hyggen suggested that a third party independently audit the numbers claimed by Arches in their report to city council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except Hyggen doesn\u2019t actually care whether Arches gets audited. Hyggen operates on confirmation bias: he seeks out frontline cops and paramedics whose claims support his ideological stance on harm reduction; he seeks out a statistician friend who agrees with his assessment that the numbers can\u2019t be true; he accepts bunk documentaries, like \u201cSeattle Is Dying<\/a>\u201d, as fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when data or peer-reviewed, published research conflicts with his opinions<\/a>, he dismisses them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See, if the data Arches released to city council matched his perceptions, Hyggen wouldn\u2019t be calling for an audit. Because it\u2019s not about how Arches operates; it\u2019s about facts disagreeing with his feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To him, the only possible explanation for the discrepancy between the facts and his feelings is that Arches must be lying. To him, there\u2019s no possibility that he might be wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n