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Companies, governments, and politicians do not say things to inform you about what is happening or what they are doing. They say things to produce in the listen

by jerf 4y ago

Companies, governments, and politicians do not say things to inform you about what is happening or what they are doing. They say things to produce in the listener the state they desire, whatever that may be, and they have few limitations as to what they will say to do that. (Not quite "zero", but definitely "few".) The sooner you learn this, the more information you can get from this sort of release. It doesn't mean you can perfectly decode it, it just means you can get more information. And the amount of time that "more information" outright contradicts the nominal content of the statement... it's not terribly uncommon. It's certainly the normal case that the decoded content heavily shades the nominal content.

hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
I hope this becomes common knowledge and starts being taught in elementary schools.
- jerf 4y ago
  I wish. People talk big about "critical thinking" but critical thinking curricula still tend to focus on the nominal content of claims. Motivation of the speaker and their desired goals is not an incidental concern to be briefly covered, it's the core of the skillset. Of course asking people teaching "critical thinking" to arm the students with a toolset that can be turned against the teachers is a pretty tall ask. I've had teachers who could take that level of heat, and props to them, but I've certainly had teachers that simply couldn't.
  - geodel 4y ago
    Excellent point!. I agree typical critical thinking courses seems to be about logical/mathematical consistency. I find a follow the money approach works much better in real life situations.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
falcolas 4y ago
This gets confusing when you consider public companies, whose shareholders are also the targets of public statements (like tweets saying "no we won't shut X down"), and there are (well, supposedly) legal limits on misleading public statements by public companies.
throw10920 4y ago
Unfortunately, many people let their political beliefs interfere with their use of this principle; if one institution('s representative) lies, then it's just an isolated incident or there was a good reason, but if another institution does, it's because that institution (possibly including all institutions in that class) are "evil".
int_19h 4y ago
> Companies, governments, and politicians More broadly, this applies to any hierarchical authority system. The amount of agitprop is proportional to the number of levels between you and the person speaking, and the amount of truthful and not misleading information is inversely proportional.

by jerf 4y ago

hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago

I hope this becomes common knowledge and starts being taught in elementary schools.

jerf 4y ago
I wish. People talk big about "critical thinking" but critical thinking curricula still tend to focus on the nominal content of claims. Motivation of the speaker and their desired goals is not an incidental concern to be briefly covered, it's the core of the skillset. Of course asking people teaching "critical thinking" to arm the students with a toolset that can be turned against the teachers is a pretty tall ask. I've had teachers who could take that level of heat, and props to them, but I've certainly had teachers that simply couldn't.
- geodel 4y ago
  Excellent point!. I agree typical critical thinking courses seems to be about logical/mathematical consistency. I find a follow the money approach works much better in real life situations.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

falcolas 4y ago

This gets confusing when you consider public companies, whose shareholders are also the targets of public statements (like tweets saying "no we won't shut X down"), and there are (well, supposedly) legal limits on misleading public statements by public companies.

throw10920 4y ago

Unfortunately, many people let their political beliefs interfere with their use of this principle; if one institution('s representative) lies, then it's just an isolated incident or there was a good reason, but if another institution does, it's because that institution (possibly including all institutions in that class) are "evil".

int_19h 4y ago

> Companies, governments, and politicians More broadly, this applies to any hierarchical authority system. The amount of agitprop is proportional to the number of levels between you and the person speaking, and the amount of truthful and not misleading information is inversely proportional.