BY DAVID WILLIAM JEDELL November 1, 2024
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that the grammatical and verbal structure of a person’s language influences how they perceive the world. It emphasizes that language either determines or influences one’s thoughts. The principle of linguistic relativity and the relationship between language and thought has also received attention in varying academic topics including philosophy, psychology and anthropology, and it has also influenced works of fiction and the invention of constructed languages. Speakers of different languages to think differently. This is a tool for subversion: where resistance is accepted in the forms of language construction and metaphors in order to question common politics and fiction potentials for subversion and our imagined future. Linguistic propaganda is a way to mitigate the negative connotations associated with the action. For example, internet headlines that exclaim, "What you need to know about..."' or "Expert says sand is ..." Where does one become and expert in sand; At the university of "Awesome?"
"In the appendix to
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell [a member of the socialist Fabian Society disclosed a planned] future society in which everyone accepted the official ideology, and in which punishment and terror were unnecessary. Instead, people were kept under control because they spoke, heard, read and wrote only a single, specially [limited] language - the language of
Newspeak...In a loose sense, the term 'linguistic engineering' can be applied to any attempt to change language in order to affect attitudes and beliefs...Linguistic engineering...in the English-speaking world include new coinages and new applications of old words, as well as attempts to eradicate usages which are believed to underpin 'offensive' attitudes. So governments gloss over and excuse the deaths of civilians in war by describing them as 'collateral damage'...; prostitutes assert the legitimacy of their way of making money by referring to themselves as 'sex workers'; and feminists demand a whole battery of changes to 'man made language', including stopping the use of 'man' as a generic term for human beings." See, Ji Fengyuan, LANGUAGE AND POLITICS THESIS (1998), https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/35464081.pdf.
"Half of U.S. adults can’t read a book written at the 8th-grade level." Cf., What’s the latest U.S. literacy rate? https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/08/whats-the-latest-u-s-literacy-rate/.
Reject the source entirely when you hear or read "What you should know..." or "Experts say..." or "Fact check..." or "Most people believe..." "Polls indicate..." or "Scientists believe such and such MIGHT be true ..." or "Protestors complain about..." or "Doctor gives medical advice (Dr. is Ph.d in English literature, ha) ..." or "The good news is...' or "what you need to know"... or "everything to know about". See, The Press: Equivocal, https://time.com/archive/6766558/the-press-equivocal/
Pregnant people are at ‘greater risk’ in states hit hard by wildfire smoke, air pollution, new report shows
https://19thnews.org/2022/04/pregnant-people-wildfire-smoke-air-pollution-report/
The adption of the "Whole Word Method" of memorizing what a word probably is by the way it looks, as opposed to the long honored "Phonic" method of learning the letters of the alphabet. "Researchers identified the need to focus on phonics and phonemic awareness as early as the 1950s. Nevertheless, the education field shifted to other curriculums in recent years, which has been linked to a crisis in early literacy, with barely a third of students nationwide mastering reading by fourth grade." See, Schools are returning to phonics," https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/education/learning/schools-teaching-reading-phonics.html
"Carl Jung's theory suggests that archetypes are archaic forms of innate human knowledge passed down from our ancestors. Over the course of development, children learn that they must behave in certain ways in order to fit in with society's expectations and norms. The persona develops as a social mask to contain all of the primitive urges, impulses, and emotions that are not considered socially acceptable." See,
Jungian Archetypes, https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-jungs-4-major-archetypes-2795439
Baloney detection kit.
Sagan presents a set of tools for skeptical thinking that he calls the "baloney detection kit." Skeptical thinking consists both of constructing a reasoned argument and recognizing a fallacious or fraudulent one. In order to identify a fallacious argument, Sagan suggests employing such tools as independent confirmation of facts, debate, development of different hypotheses, quantification, the use of Occam's razor, and the possibility of falsification. Sagan's "baloney detection kit" also provides tools for detecting "the most common fallacies of logic and rhetoric", such as argument from authority and statistics of small numbers. Through these tools, Sagan argues the benefits of a critical mind and the self-correcting nature of science can take place.
Carl Sagan advice is pertinent to today's emersion into propaganda:
There must be independent confirmation of the facts given when possible.
Encourage debate on the evidence from all points of view.
Realize that an argument from authority is not always reliable. Sagan supports this by telling us that 'authorities" have made mistakes in the past and they will again in the future.
Consider more than one hypothesis. Sagan adds to this by telling us that we must think of the argument from all angles and think all the ways it can be explained or disproved. The hypothesis that then still hasn't been disproved has a much higher chance of being correct.
Try your best to not purely stick to a hypothesis that is your own and become biased. Sagan tells us to compare our own hypothesis with others to see if we can find reasons to reject our own hypothesis.
Quantify. Sagan tells us that if whatever we are trying to explain has numerical value or quantitative data related to it, then we'll be much more able to compete against other hypotheses.
If there is a chain of argument, every link in that chain must be correct.
The use of Occam's razor, which tells us to choose the hypothesis that is simpler and requires the least amount of assumptions.
Ask if a given hypothesis can be falsified. Sagan tells us that if a hypothesis cannot be tested or falsified then it is not worth considering.
Logical fallacies
Ad hominem. An arguer attacks the opposing arguer and not the actual argument.
Argument from authority. Someone expects another to immediately believe that a person of authority or higher knowledge is correct.
Argument from adverse consequences. Someone says that something must be done a certain way or else there will be adverse consequences.
Appeal to ignorance. One argues a claim in that whatever has not been proved false must be true, and vice versa.
Special pleading. An arguer responds to a deeply complex or rhetorical question or statement by, usually, saying "oh you don't understand how so and so works."
Begging the question. An arguer assumes the answer and makes a claim such as, this happened because of that, or, this needs to happen in order for that to happen.
Observational selection. Someone talks about how great something is by explaining all of the positive aspects of it while purposely not mentioning any of the negative aspects.
Statistics of small numbers. Someone argues something by giving the statistics in small numbers, which isn't very reliable.
Misunderstanding of the nature of statistics. Someone misinterprets statistics given to them.
Fallacy of inconsistency. An arguer is very inconsistent in their claims.
Non sequitur. This is Latin for "it doesn't follow." A claim is made that doesn't make much sense, such as "Our nation will prevail because God is great."
Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Latin for "it happened after, so it was caused by." An arguer claims that something happened because of a past event when really it probably didn't.
Meaningless question. Someone asks a question that has no real meaning or doesn't add to the argument at all.
The excluded middle. An arguer only considers or mentions the two opposite extremes of the conversation and excludes the aspects in between the two extremes.
Related Material
Dumbing down America. An end to the reading wars? More US schools embrace phonics. In 2000, a government-formed National Reading Panel released the findings of its exhaustive examination of the research. It declared phonics instruction was crucial to teaching young readers, along with several related concepts. Whole language had lost.
https://apnews.com/article/phonics-science-reading-c715dea43f338f163715b01b83bb1066
Copyright © 2024 by David William Jedell
Email: d.w.jedell@gmail.com
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