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originally posted by: Hefficide
a reply to: Revolution9
Facts are facts. They are objective. The method I personally prefer to use to find them is by research and comparison. There are still good places to find raw data - and raw data doesn't lie. We might draw subjective conclusions of our own from it, but the data, itself, when looked at as a whole, tends to be purely objective.
originally posted by: KZrkiller
IE, Gay rights and a rainbow cast upon the White House.......
originally posted by: KZrkiller
I'm full Right, don't drop and think i'm christian
originally posted by: Boadicea
a reply to: Hefficide
"Caveat Emptor." People have been lying and cheating and fooling others since time immemorial.... and people let themselves be for various reasons, but in the end, it comes down to ego and feeding the ego.
When I look at that graphic, I first see the "Unemployment down" and the big red arrow and I think the unemployment rate is down. I then see the big # and have to look for the "jobs added" to see what the number refers to. I would suggest that people who see it differently are seeing what they want to see... but, yes, I'm sure that whoever created that graphic also knew that. In this case, Fox would be creating a graphic which is true, but in a way that they already know their viewers/readers will respond.
My dad sat me down when I was girl and demonstrated -- with three different newspapers reporting on the same story -- that different articles reported different things. All were technically true; all had some of the same facts, and all had more or less facts than the others. He pointed out the use of adjectives in any news report is a red flag, because adjectives are subjective -- not facts. He also taught me to consider what facts are included but have no real relevance to the story which can color opinions. And when the reader wants to feed their ego instead of understanding the basic facts, the reader will find their own.
When my kids were young and starting to want whatever cereal or toy or whatever was advertised during their cartoons, I taught them to "spot the lie." They figured it out. It wasn't rocket science. My son was only about 5 when he pointed out beer commercials that "make men think if they drink that beer they'll get all the pretty girls." NLP blatantly exploits the ego. Once the NLP practitioner has your ego hooked, the next step is often to associate your ego with the practitioner.... so any criticism or attacks against the practitioner becomes a criticism or attack of you, and you end up fighting anyone who dares to do so. Their battle becomes your battle.
Oprah has stated outright that she used NLP techniques on her audience. Bill Clinton hosted Tony Robbins (the self-help guru and master of NLP) at Camp David during his presidency. During the '08 election, Obama was accused of using NLP tactics to the masses, and I remember one report that went into explicit detail of how Obama did it. Most of Obama's supporters called it nonsense and crazy... and attacked the accusers. Obama's battle became their battle. I did however read one supporter who basically said yes, he is using NLP, but it's working -- so great!
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I have no respect for those who lie and manipulate others. Unfortunately, too many people are too willing to be manipulated (and manipulate others) if it suits their own purposes and to hell with everyone else. Too many people are willing to believe their opinions as facts.
This is an excellent post and I'm really glad you wrote it. The more people who learn from this the better. The more people can examine the "truths" they're being told -- and their own conscience -- the better for all of us.
originally posted by: woodwardjnr
I don't know if anyone's noticed how when, what looks like an attractive female avatar, all the guys on ats start being nice and defending the pretty girls opinions.
That is why we have to have lawyers, judges and courtrooms
originally posted by: Hefficide
Only the article itself is supposedly discussing the exact opposite message. The facts behind the story are diametrically opposed to the visual message being presented. The visuals are deliberately designed to manipulate how the viewer processes the information. In this case the actual fact is that unemployment went down... but the graphic is designed to trick the viewer into processing the information as exactly the opposite... it leaves the casual viewer with the impression that the job situation got worse.