I don't understand how we as a society turn a blind eye to being surrounded by lies and misdirection. It's well known to be a folly and well documented that governments the world over abuse their position of first hand knowledge to redirect and re-cast truth, and manipulate public opinion in their favour[1][2].
Perhaps at my age I have come to see patterns and have come to understand that pretty much everything I don't have first hand experience of is likely to be distorted to a lesser or greater extent. This is not only true of news and public discourse, but also in my personal life. People naturally bend reality to fit their beliefs, world views, and often to just tell a good story.
I am sure many adults are aware of this, but we never really talk about it. Children are not educated about the nature of this problem. We are not taught to think about the nature of information we consume, and yet many of us know our lives are surrounded by lies and manipulators.
Manipulative advertising and government deception, both of which have reams of psychological research backing their strategies, dominate a majority of our lives and yet we don't educate each other as such.
I am very sad to come to realize that TV shaped my beliefs growing up, and it was mostly based on myths driven by advertising dollars. Obviously entertainment is not going away, and nor should it, but we should have discourse highlighting who drives the narrative. One of the few facts we can know is little of what we learn is truly verifiable - knowing that is hugely helpful and allows us to make better decisions about what we value in life.
Perhaps at my age I have come to see patterns and have come to understand that pretty much everything I don't have first hand experience of is likely to be distorted to a lesser or greater extent. This is not only true of news and public discourse, but also in my personal life. People naturally bend reality to fit their beliefs, world views, and often to just tell a good story.
I am sure many adults are aware of this, but we never really talk about it. Children are not educated about the nature of this problem. We are not taught to think about the nature of information we consume, and yet many of us know our lives are surrounded by lies and manipulators.
Manipulative advertising and government deception, both of which have reams of psychological research backing their strategies, dominate a majority of our lives and yet we don't educate each other as such.
I am very sad to come to realize that TV shaped my beliefs growing up, and it was mostly based on myths driven by advertising dollars. Obviously entertainment is not going away, and nor should it, but we should have discourse highlighting who drives the narrative. One of the few facts we can know is little of what we learn is truly verifiable - knowing that is hugely helpful and allows us to make better decisions about what we value in life.
[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/03/31/who-lied-to-wh... [2] https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2008/f...