WYSIATI – Social Panic

Using a misquote, without context, to try and make a point about modern vaccines

March 11, 2021 EdwardSP

““In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the smallpox taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation.” This quote is from Ben Franklin but it leaves out so much context as to be used incorrectly today. It relies on the modern day readers perspective that a vaccination existed then, but perhaps he was an anti-vaxxer. In fact, their “innoculation” had a 1 in 50 fatality rate during smallpox outbreaks. And it was not until about 100 years later the concept of an effective vaccine came into play. This quote works as propaganda because of the “What You See Is All There Is” phenomena – the viewer makes assumptions based on our contemporary situation.

Poorly done propaganda using WYSIATI cherry picking: Al Jazeera gets an F on this one

February 21, 2021 EdwardSP

Al Jazeera runs a column by a professor of philosophy who says capitalism is a failure and that only government can deliver the “innovation” necessary to deliver vaccines for Covid-19. Al Jazeera fails to note his background as an avid socialist member of groups opposed to the “neoliberal capitalist model”. Failing to disclose this background context turns this into a propaganda piece versus not legitimate analysis of issues.

Pseudo news: “More Utah women are graduating with STEM degrees, but not at the same rate as men”

August 12, 2019 edwardm

A pseudo news story – one of many – proclaims not enough women are in “STEM” fields. This conclusion depends on how you define “STEM” fields. By leaving out many fields of “science”, they are looking primarly at “TE” – technology and engineering only. When all “S” (science) and “M” (math) are included, the discrepancies are not nearly as large. The root issue, though, is that many fields have a dominant gender – but this issue is ignored in favor of focusing exclusively on women in “TE” fields (while pretending this group is “STEM”). For example, about 90% of nurses, which employs millions of workers, are women – yet “health science” is typically excluded from the charts and data tables used to show us that women are not studying “STEM” – because they mean “TE”.

The role played by propaganda in the public discussion of the #ACA #ObamaCare-Did you know the ACA has a pre-existing condition waiting period?

December 17, 2018 edwardm

Propaganda messaging played and continues to play an enormous role in the public’s view on the Affordable Care Act a.k.a. ObamaCare. For example, Democrats have made pre-existing condition exclusions the centerpiece of their 2018 public commentary on the ACA.

Yet, never explained is that most Americans already had protections against pre-existing condition exclusions – it was the individual market that did not have protections (details in the post). Further, contrary to what you have been led to believe, the ACA does, in fact, establish a pre-existing condition waiting period. The ACA did not eliminate pre-existing condition waiting periods (see post for details).

The propaganda messaging used the methods of Fear, Assertion, Lying and What You See Is All There Is and has been extraordinarily effective. The Republican opposition has been clumsy and largely counterproductive with utterly ineffective propaganda messaging of its own.

(This is a major update to a previously posted item on this topic – formatting, editing and a better explanation of the propaganda methods used have been done to improve the previous post and make it easier to understand.)

Ignorance contributes to the effectiveness of propaganda

November 10, 2018 edwardm

Democrats won the popular vote in the U.S. Senate, therefore the 2018 election is unfair, says the meme. Sounds convincing – until you see this claim taken apart by the Washington Post. In fact, Democrats won 22 of the 35 seats or 65% of the seats while receiving just 55% of the total votes. Read the whole thing. This is an example of propaganda messaging that uses the “What you see is all there is” method. Also see thelogical fallacy of implying a vote of 1/3d of the Senate seats is a vote of 100% of Senate seats, fooling the target of the propaganda messaging.

"No, it wasn't always on our money!"

January 24, 2017 edwardm

TL;DR Summary The phrase “In God We Trust wasn’t always on our money” states the propaganda poster. This poster is both true and false, depending on how you define “money”. It has been on some coins since 1909, for example. The goal of the poster was to argue about separation of state and church (we think). It works due to (a) a true assertion, and (b) “What you see is all there is” and the viewer is not aware that…

Social Panic

Propaganda about propaganda: How propaganda is impacting your brain

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Category: WYSIATI

Using a misquote, without context, to try and make a point about modern vaccines

March 11, 2021 EdwardSP

Poorly done propaganda using WYSIATI cherry picking: Al Jazeera gets an F on this one

February 21, 2021 EdwardSP

Pseudo news: “More Utah women are graduating with STEM degrees, but not at the same rate as men”

August 12, 2019 edwardm

The role played by propaganda in the public discussion of the #ACA #ObamaCare-Did you know the ACA has a pre-existing condition waiting period?

December 17, 2018 edwardm

Ignorance contributes to the effectiveness of propaganda

November 10, 2018 edwardm

"No, it wasn't always on our money!"

January 24, 2017 edwardm

“No, it wasn’t always on our money!”

January 24, 2017 edwardm