What I would like is for there to be less emotional manipulation going on. People being told how to feel and then feeling that way. Never mind how to think; thinking, unfortunately, doesn’t even enter into it.[/quote]
Of course, this emotional manipulation has been going on since humans have been humans (at least). What could be (but isn’t and won’t be) different is that, now, most people have almost unlimited access to the same facts and other information as almost everybody else. We don’t have the same excuse to not understand what’s really happening as the serf in the field being told by his lord what the deal is.
Silly me, when the internet started to get big, I thought it would usher in a new era of enlightenment, all over (or almost all over) the world. How utterly naive that thought was. It’s done the opposite. And the reason it’s done the opposite is that it afforded a greater opportunity to emotionally manipulate people, and human beings are not only easily emotionally manipulated, they want to be told how to feel. They want to be led around by their amygdalas and put into boxes. They like their well-defined little boxes where they “know” what’s what. They don’t want to have to think or analyze or evaluate or use logic or reason or facts or evidence. That’s all too much work or too nebulous or too scary or too lacking in certainty.
That’s very disappointing to me. And I guess it’s why I hate the right-wing noise machine so much. It’s shown me a lot about human nature, and I don’t like what I see.
