11mo ago

Just Say It, Democrats: Biden Has Been a Great President

newrepublic.com Just Say It, Democrats: Biden Has Been a Great President

His achievements have been nothing short of historic.

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496 comments

Not so subtle reminder that YOU are not immune to propaganda.
- Also propaganda doesn't come exclusively from newspapers and magazines.
  The best form of propaganda in the last couple of decades has been word of mouth.
  Don't trust anyone to tell you what to think. Look at the facts and only the facts.
  
  Those facts nobody tells you about?
  
  Whether someone tells you or you stumble on it yourself.
  Peer reviewed studies, direct statistics, etc
  A poll is a primary source. That's good.
  An article telling you about a poll is a secondary source. Be skeptical.
  And above all, be very skeptical of anything that makes you feel intense emotion. Someone might be trying to make you feel that way so you'll be less critical.
  
  What is this, the 1900's?
  The best propaganda tool is obviously the internet: anonymous, spreads far and wide, can be automated
  
  I think the biggest risk is the Internet as a propaganda tool disguised as word of mouth 'grassroots' opinions.
  
  "Word of mouth" imo includes direct person to person interaction on social media. Your Facebook friends, a sidebar on reddit or lemmy, a DM
  That's how I've always used the term.
  
  Do yOuR owN ReSeARcH!!
  
  Yeah but literally. Not "watch YouTube videos". Look up a primary source - a statistic or a peer reviewed study.
  The insidious part about the "do your own research" people is that they've managed to convince a generation of people to NOT do any research.
  
  Imagine being downvoted for telling people to seek the truth in what they’re told.
  This is lemmy now.
  
  Facts aren't facts though.
  Both sides of Covid had their facts, and after a few years, both sides had to admit they were wrong about certain things.
  I think the other problem with only looking at facts is that it ignores the context.
  Take 9/11 for example, the fact was terrorists attacked America, end of story.
  But it misses the bigger picture; why did they attack America? There are no "facts" here. We can speculate, or we could take them at their word.
  
  What an incredibly stupid take. There were hundreds of people trying to figure out why terrorists attacked America. There were books and scientific papers written about it. Just because you never looked into it doesn't mean there's no data.
  You're arguing against the concept of truth because you're too lazy to pursue it.
  
  You're missing the point. I could explain it, but you're acting like an asshole. There is nothing I said to warrant such an abrasive response.
  
  It offends me when people argue against the concept of knowledge.
  
  I did no such thing. In fact, what I was doing was marking a line and making it more distinct.
  Epistemology is important to me, but there isn't one epistemology, there are epistemologies. If you want to take it to the extreme, the only thing we can be certain of is that we are conscious. That is the only thing which cannot be an illusion.
  Also, you claim your feelings were hurt because you thought someone had a different opinion about something.
  The irony is that your actions are antithetical to gaining knowledge. Instead of being curious, you assumed you were right, got emotional, strawmanned my position and then acted like an asshole.
  Your actions are also antithetical to sharing knowledge. If you were right, most people wouldn't listen to what you were saying because you've just disrespected them.
  
  Epistemic relativism is a black hole. It's the graveyard of knowledge, and I will not abide it. It's the ultimate of all cop-outs. Those who bring it up should be immediately excommunicated from all rational discussion.
  It's the parodox of tolerance for philosophy. Relativism is a thought-terminating argument that people like you use as an ICBM targeting intelligent takes on relevant issues.
  It OFFENDS me.
  You want to bring it up in a purely theoretical context, without any relation to previous topics, fine. But when it gets brought up in any context other than its own, the person speaking it should be run out of town.
  
  Once again, you have missed the point and strawmanned me. I'm not doing this. Stop being a baby.
  
  I’m not doing this.
  That's my point.

496 comments