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"a simple feel-good story" - am I the only one who feels manipulated? It could have been eg "Man makes toy bears...". When I see something like "Dad makes ted
by heywherelogingo 5y ago
"a simple feel-good story" - am I the only one who feels manipulated? It could have been eg "Man makes toy bears...". When I see something like "Dad makes teddies..." I stop reading. Give me the details, and I'll draw conclusions on my own, thanks. Related, I struggle to find objective media; I thought The Economist would be hard nosed objective economics - nope, had to unsubscribe; I figured the FT must be the answer, only interested in money and profits, facts only - nope, unsubscribed.
- aledalgrande 5y agoWow, that's a cynical take if I've seen one.
- heywherelogingo 5y agoI think you underestimate the media, or maybe it's just the UK media.
- nitrogen 5y agoPerhaps, but the parent post was right to notice that headline wording choice has an effect on emotion, and can be manipulative. Human interest stories aren't always chosen and conveyed with the interest of the reader or the subject in mind.
- sweetheart 5y agoIMHO, saying that "Dad makes teddies" is simply a manipulative form of "Man makes toys" is just drawing arbitrary lines on the spectrum of the descriptiveness of language. It primes the reader for a more light-hearted, cute story, rather than a factual retelling of a series of events. Evoking emotional !== being manipulative. It _can_ mean that, but just because something tugs at our heart strings doesn't mean we are being manipulated. Further, why not consider that "Man makes toys" is just a manipulative form of "Dad makes teddies"? Sure that primes us just as much as "Dad makes teddies", just in the other direction, no? EDIT: Rereading this it sounds like I'm coming at you, or the OP, but I'm not :) Just thinking out loud in response to your comment!
- sharken 5y agoThe headline can be misleading, but reading a few of the top comments and how they relate, makes me think that this is a great story. More teddies !
- MisterBastahrd 5y agoGiven that his role as a father was central to him creating the first bear, what word should they have used that would have conveyed the same amount of information? Are we really going to pretend that "Man makes toys" is a superior informational choice to "Dad makes teddies?"
- kzrdude 5y agoObjective economics? But there are many schools of economics and quite some overlap with politics. The expectation you have might need to change.
- octaonalocto 5y agoI have found (as I've gotten older, and, hopefully wiser) that I no longer seek out objectivity because it cannot exist in most human interest topics. Economics has no objective truth, as evidenced by its inability as a whole to make accurate predictions. Politics has no objective truth, because we need to understand people's motivations which are often hidden from themselves. If you see this kind of headline and get upset because of the editorializing, I suspect you should only read about physics and math. At least until you start to see the subjectivity in those fields as well. We cannot escape our biases. We cannot communicate objectively - the decisions of what to talk about, how we express it, and how much context to include - those all fly against objectivity. It took me a while to accept that I'm not a logical robot and to embrace the parts of humanity that I previously found distasteful because it couldn't be cleanly reduced to a binary.
- MisterBastahrd 5y agoThat you haven't read the story but you feel manipulated says a lot more about you than the story. The story is fine, and it doesn't even make a value judgment about what the father is doing. It documents why he started making these things and why he claims that he is continuing to make them... so unless you have a problem with documenting the motivation of the subject of a story, I have no idea why you would feel manipulated unless you're just looking for a grievance.
- lazyasciiart 5y agoHow incredibly curious that you find the word 'dad' to be manipulative but think 'man' is just a generic fact about someone.
- renewiltord 5y agoWhy is "Man makes toy bears" superior? It doesn't sound any more objective.
- dkdbejwi383 5y agoExactly, it should simply state “Homo Sapiens specimen manufactures inanimate objects”
- InitialLastName 5y agoToday in the news: "Bag of meat makes bag of cotton"