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I wanna be civil but I couldn't read your comment without sharing my (strong) opinion that instead the opposite of every one of the listed recognitions and conc

by pizza 9y ago

I wanna be civil but I couldn't read your comment without sharing my (strong) opinion that instead the opposite of every one of the listed recognitions and conclusions is the more accurate interpretation about this article. - is the imagery really a stylistic choice made in bad faith, if people are more likely to be worse at visualizing the differences in size from numbers than vice versa? - pathos is mutually exclusive from logos? - or that the argument that African victims received less news attention per corpse is a pathos based appeal and not logos..? (or that the suggestion it is not a logos based appeal may be, upon further inspection, a pathos based appeal itself..) - having felt manipulated by receiving accurate info that, nevertheless, made you better informed for having heard it, despite suspicions that there are ulterior motives for being reminded of dead Africans, too? if you wouldn't mind, I'd at least want to see what you thought of that, or perhaps what a better way to communicate the information would have been

chongli 9y ago
sharing my (strong) opinion Share away! Strong opinions, held loosely, is my m.o. What bothers me is the connotation that I, as a Westerner, do not care about Africans for some reason and a further connotation that the reason is racism (using people icons on the infographic). I care a great deal about Africans! It is infuriating how many people in Africa die due to violence, disease, and famine from causes that can be directly linked to Western activities. I get why they did it, mind you. There's plenty of research to show that presenting the facts in a straightforward and neutral manner is less effective at swaying people. I just don't appreciate the use of psychological tricks when they're used against me. I'm reminded of a brief example by Slavoj Žižek: “Let’s say that you are a small child and one Sunday afternoon you have to do the boring duty of visiting your old senile grandmother. If you have a good old–fashioned authoritarian father, what will he tell you? ‘I don’t care how you feel, just go there and behave properly. Do your duty.’ A modern permissive totalitarian father will tell you something else: ‘You know how much your grandmother would love to see you. But do go and visit her only if you really want to.’ Now every idiot knows the catch. Beneath the appearance of this free choice there is an even more oppressive order. You seem to have a choice, but there is no choice, because the order is not only you must visit your grandmother, you must even enjoy it. If you don’t believe me, just try to say ‘I have a choice, I will not do it.’ I promise your father will say ‘What did your grandmother ever do to you? Don’t you know how much she loves you? How could you do this to her?’” — Slavoj Žižek, “The Superego and the Act” (August 1999) I would rather be forced to help (by tax-funded foreign aid) than be manipulated into wanting to help via guilt trip. Otherwise I'll make my own decision to help in the way I deem appropriate for my situation and means.

by pizza 9y ago

chongli 9y ago

sharing my (strong) opinion Share away! Strong opinions, held loosely, is my m.o. What bothers me is the connotation that I, as a Westerner, do not care about Africans for some reason and a further connotation that the reason is racism (using people icons on the infographic). I care a great deal about Africans! It is infuriating how many people in Africa die due to violence, disease, and famine from causes that can be directly linked to Western activities. I get why they did it, mind you. There's plenty of research to show that presenting the facts in a straightforward and neutral manner is less effective at swaying people. I just don't appreciate the use of psychological tricks when they're used against me. I'm reminded of a brief example by Slavoj Žižek: “Let’s say that you are a small child and one Sunday afternoon you have to do the boring duty of visiting your old senile grandmother. If you have a good old–fashioned authoritarian father, what will he tell you? ‘I don’t care how you feel, just go there and behave properly. Do your duty.’ A modern permissive totalitarian father will tell you something else: ‘You know how much your grandmother would love to see you. But do go and visit her only if you really want to.’ Now every idiot knows the catch. Beneath the appearance of this free choice there is an even more oppressive order. You seem to have a choice, but there is no choice, because the order is not only you must visit your grandmother, you must even enjoy it. If you don’t believe me, just try to say ‘I have a choice, I will not do it.’ I promise your father will say ‘What did your grandmother ever do to you? Don’t you know how much she loves you? How could you do this to her?’” — Slavoj Žižek, “The Superego and the Act” (August 1999) I would rather be forced to help (by tax-funded foreign aid) than be manipulated into wanting to help via guilt trip. Otherwise I'll make my own decision to help in the way I deem appropriate for my situation and means.