Part one of a multi part series about emotional manipulation in the media.
You're being manipulated and the only way to stop it is by letting your brain win.
The best solution to any problem often requires thinking about it from an angle which many people never even consider. Our emotions want us to react immediately and often viscerally to a problem, especially one that has a lot of emotion attached to it. Feelings generally trump reason, both internally and externally. This depends on who you are and how you react, but in general, people go with their feelings -- if their feelings are strong enough.
I believe that we can come to better solutions by telling our hearts to take five and letting our brains do the work.
A good example of an issue which elicits a very emotional response is the great abortion debate. Everyone has an opinion about abortion and everyone feels very strongly about that opinion. Some people believe that abortion is akin to murder and others believe that it is a simple solution to a very serious problem. Many people see the banning of abortion as an afront to a woman's right to bodily autonomy, while others see the act of abortion as an afront to a child's right to life. The arguments get very heated.
But let's think about this without feelings. Think about how we can solve the problem without our feelings getting in the way. This is the only way to come up with a long lasting solution to the problem. The emotional arguments say that the solution to these problems is either to completely ban abortion in every case (or at least the majority of cases) or to make abortion a societal norm by making it easy and cheap (or free) to access for everyone and taking the negative stigma away. Many times the solution is not to go to either extreme; rather, to find something in between those. Emotional thinking will not lead us to the best solution to the problem because we are too blinded by our feelings.
Why is it so hard to put feelings aside for a moment and think about a problem from a rational point of view?
Because the logical point of view -- that middle ground we're trying to reach -- won't be presented to us by the news media. Their ultimate goal is to get good ratings so they can make more money. Good ratings don't come from logic, they come from emotion.
I plan to continue this series about emotional manipulation in the media by dissecting news articles and videos to show you the inflammatory wording and other tactics they use to keep you afraid.
The first article I look at will be this one: Pro-Rape 'Men's Rights' Group Plans Saturday Rally in Chicago. We'll look at what is both right and wrong with it and figure out how to draw reasonable conclusions from a very unreasonable article. I'll arm you with all the information you need to draw your own conclusion.
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