- Sep 2018
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paulcairney.wordpress.com paulcairney.wordpress.com
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Ambiguity describes the ability to entertain more than one interpretation of a policy problem.
Which is where "framing" has the most power, the greatest potential to sway opinion
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paulcairney.wordpress.com paulcairney.wordpress.com
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some actors exercise power to reinforce dominant ways to think about the world.
What I find interesting about this, is that power, in this case, is a question of (at least) two things that relate directly to the university:
- Access (to related research, information, etc that can help inform opinion on public policy)
- Training (to think critically about that information, interpret the data and state of research, and also to communicate/frame it in an impactful way)
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‘national mood’
Like how presidential campaigns are now orchestrated by top tier social psychologists.
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the selective presentation of facts
Like Jevin West said in his talk, "numbers should always be presented in context...but they're not"
A friend of mine did her undergrad in journalism, and she says the most important lesson she learned is: A story isn't about what you include, but what you leave out
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drive.google.com drive.google.com
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There are many other examples
Really good book on this topic: Merchants of Doubt
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retain the evidence that seems to support their initial impressions and reject the contrary evidence
i.e. Confirmation Bias
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· Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
A powerful reason to make all research publicly accessible.
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More than a third of American adults believe that on some level they’ve made contact with the dead.
A more recent study (2006) found that more than 60% of participants held this belief! I wonder what the proportion is today, and whether it will continue increasing...
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inst-fs-iad-prod.inscloudgate.net inst-fs-iad-prod.inscloudgate.net
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bullshit is a greater enemy of the truththan lies are.
So bullshit exists on a totally different pane of reality than truth and lies. It can exist independent of facts. It has no roots in the real world—or at least, it doesn't require them.
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is that thetruth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him
So the lier cares more about truth than the bullshitter does?
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Therefore provision is made forenjoying a certain irresponsibility, so that people will beencouraged to convey what is on their minds without too muchanxiety that they will be held to it.
This also means that bull sessions create an opportunity for people to express thoughts or beliefs they wouldn't feel comfortable sharing otherwise—i.e. the opposite of bull shit.
But of course, if it's said in the context of a bull session, the truth will be indistinguishable from the bull shit. Does it still count as telling the truth, if everyone things your just bullshitting?
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“an informalconversation or discussion, esp. of a group of males.”
Ha. This sounds more like #BroTalk
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After all, every use oflanguage without exception has some, but not all, of thecharacteristic features of lies
I love this strangely poetic moment in the essay. What's that famous Kafka quote again..."All language is but a poor translation"?
It's funny how easy it is to forget that language is just a tool we've developed to attempt to describe reality to one another. Words are stand-ins for the real things, feelings, thoughts, or sensations they are meant to convey—not true or complete reflections of the world.
And if all language is, to some degree, a lie or misrepresentation, what does that mean for bullshit? Is it the person's intention—of wanting to fool or deceive vs communicate reality—that sets bullshit apart from other discourse?
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