I mentioned in another thread that I would come back to this article.
We've all seen this at this forum, which I consider to be a major step above any internet forum in that people here think and do things that most people would consider difficult. I respect guys who live a story they want to live and have the boldness to do so - it takes guts because there will be difficult times.
I've noticed even on this forum, though that some topic creations, regardless of how they turn out establish a focus for people to discuss, even if from the beginning it's false or unsubstantiated. The tactics that Greenwald discusses are disturbing, yet we can see this with any topic - if I bring up the political topic of abortion I've already set the topic for discussion. People begin to pour in and rant their views and debate the topic, but what I've essentially done is limit and control what's discussed.
As a case in point, how many posts do we see in this forum about this massive highway that's build that reduces traffic and how the construction workers hauled ass and built it quickly and now we save five extra minutes a day. Yet something like that impacts our life more than some random shooting in a state we've never set foot in, or some random politician who's saying something that catches attention, but amounts to nothing.
My two points here are:
1. We lose sight on things that impact us and improve our lives by letting other set the topic for discussion. By losing sight of these things, we miss on gratitude for those who actually help us, and miss on doing things that will improve others' lives around us.
2. Once the topic for discussion is set, regardless of the views that are presented, the narrative doesn't matter. Once the topic of homosexuality was set, it was only a matter of time before it became legal because people began discussing it and as people discussed it, they became desensitized to it to the point that they finally accepted it, or were "Ok, fine!" In other words, the topic being set matters more than the narrative that follows and I predict the same will happen with the trans and fat acceptance movements because both have already set the topic in motion.
I'm curious what your thoughts are of what I've been thinking about. I've been studying propaganda because I think conservatives have made the mistake of avoiding the topic instead of learning how people are being manipulated so that they can expose it.
We've all seen this at this forum, which I consider to be a major step above any internet forum in that people here think and do things that most people would consider difficult. I respect guys who live a story they want to live and have the boldness to do so - it takes guts because there will be difficult times.
I've noticed even on this forum, though that some topic creations, regardless of how they turn out establish a focus for people to discuss, even if from the beginning it's false or unsubstantiated. The tactics that Greenwald discusses are disturbing, yet we can see this with any topic - if I bring up the political topic of abortion I've already set the topic for discussion. People begin to pour in and rant their views and debate the topic, but what I've essentially done is limit and control what's discussed.
As a case in point, how many posts do we see in this forum about this massive highway that's build that reduces traffic and how the construction workers hauled ass and built it quickly and now we save five extra minutes a day. Yet something like that impacts our life more than some random shooting in a state we've never set foot in, or some random politician who's saying something that catches attention, but amounts to nothing.
My two points here are:
1. We lose sight on things that impact us and improve our lives by letting other set the topic for discussion. By losing sight of these things, we miss on gratitude for those who actually help us, and miss on doing things that will improve others' lives around us.
2. Once the topic for discussion is set, regardless of the views that are presented, the narrative doesn't matter. Once the topic of homosexuality was set, it was only a matter of time before it became legal because people began discussing it and as people discussed it, they became desensitized to it to the point that they finally accepted it, or were "Ok, fine!" In other words, the topic being set matters more than the narrative that follows and I predict the same will happen with the trans and fat acceptance movements because both have already set the topic in motion.
I'm curious what your thoughts are of what I've been thinking about. I've been studying propaganda because I think conservatives have made the mistake of avoiding the topic instead of learning how people are being manipulated so that they can expose it.
