defacto7
defacto7's JournalI want to make informed decisions. Who's going to do the informing?
After reading an op that undermines my candidate my first reaction is a strong one. I'm disappointed and my knee-jerk reaction is to sink the ship. On the other hand there are some good rebuttals. But the good lesson for me is to think through the manipulations in the last elections.
The bots and deceivers were powerful in the time leading to those elections, this we all know; a lot of people were duped. It would be irresponsible on my part to dump any candidate on this or even a few negative tweets or bites just as much as it would be irresponsible for me to disregard them because their messages don't meet my standards for a candidate.
If you think the descievers were rampant and somewhat successful last time around I have no doubt the perpetrators have worked hard to improve since then.
I'm holding all info and judgements until I see and hear the real thing in action at the debates and in person. I'm not letting any tweets or hearsay dictate my position but I will compare notes and make my conclusions based on experience, not strictly on what I'm fed by the media or anonymous promotion.
That's how I see it.
D7
On Lying
My complete bafflement over the persistant and grandiose disinformation disorder permeating the country right now got me to do a little research on the psychology, philosophy, ethics and neural correlates of lying. It's was rather enlightening and in a way relieving to find so much material online characterizing the phenomenon of conservative political lying and the science behind such human behavour. Let me say this... We are not alone at DU in recognizing the madness. There are so many studies and articles that define and clarify the asininity of right wing lie pathology that I'm just going to leave you with three fascinating links on the subject.
I'll start with: Why We Lie: The Science Behind Our Deceptive Ways Deceptive Ways
This is a great general read from National Geographic that covers a wide view of why we all lie and why some are compelled to believe lies more than others... and much more.
Second: BBC Ethics Guide - Lying
This is a very nice compilation of ethical studies covering these topics:
Lying and truth-telling
Lying and ethical theory
Philosophers on lying
Lying under serious threat
Other types of lying
Lying and medical ethics
Some interesting philosophical points of view include St. Augustine and his graduated list of lies ranging from the pardonable lie to unpardonable mortal lie. I found it thought provoking that his number one most damnable lie was "lies told in teaching religion" Hmmmm! Another was Thomas Aquinas where he states that "Officious or helpful lies are pardonable". I guess that would make them purposeful if you needed to promote a "cause". It also covers Consequentialism and Deontologists.
Lastly: Neural correlates of deception: lying about past events and personal beliefs (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov PMC) about past events and personal beliefs (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov PMC)
This is a more "brain science" approach to lying. I came across this in the pursuit of philosophy and ethics but it's very interesting science.
I hope this stuff is useful; it's a whole lot more interesting than my writing so don't equate my blather with these well written articles. They do give insight into why it's such a shit storm out there.
D7
My dog threw up on the floor today.
After which he went back and ate it which seems disgusting to me personally. But then I realized that his condition imparted a deep philosophical lesson. The holy bible says, "As the dog returns to his own vomit, so does the fool to his own folly." I think that's Ecclesiastes or maybe it's Proverbs I don't know. But then I realized something even more disgusting. My dog may not only be an evangelical but he may be a Republican as well.
OMG
Profile Information
Name: Defacto7Gender: Do not display
Hometown: Portland, OR
Home country: not sure anymore
Current location: depends on which proxy I'm using
Member since: Wed Aug 1, 2012, 01:44 AM
Number of posts: 13,485
