Learn To Dissect Meaning From What People Write

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(Edited)

The news isn't really the news these days. Well, not like what it was when I was younger. When I was younger it was more impartial than it was biased. Of course I'm sure there were certain things they couldn't report, or certain slants they had to put on opinion because of the governments position on matters, but it certainly wasn't like what it is today. Today it's all about opinions and feelings. And we need to learn to dissect that, because sometimes the truth hurts. Like Ben Shapiro says

Facts don't care about your feelings

But it's hard, I know, to read something negative and not be outraged. Often news is totally put in front of us so that we actually become outraged -- fear and confusion sell a lot faster than happiness and contentedness. We are wired as humans to call out to our friends and neighbours to warn them of bad news, or advice. Just like when birds tweet loudly when there's a cat in the garden; it's not because the bird is scared, it's because it's warning other birds of a potential danger nearby.

Sometimes reading or watching the news can feel like a never ending cycle of doom and gloom. There's always something wrong in the world, and it's always someone else's fault. We aren't taught to think for ourselves in mainstream schools, it only stands to reason that some of us would value emotion over logic when it comes to current events.

Did you know what happens to the brain when it gets emotional? Angry, sad, frustrated? Emotions are actually handled by a different part of the brain and when you are intensely feeling one, the other part is minimised -- which is why angry lynch mobs making irrational on-the-spot judgements without any evidence whatsoever are a thing.

Yet, I'm a writer, and it's interesting how when I read an article I can clearly see where and how they are trying to get at me by pulling my strings. It's an interesting concept,  yet can be devastating to society and the culture around us. Take these few examples:

Husband kills wife in house with kitchen knife

Sounds like a really accurate news story there, right? Yes, I'd agree. But who wants to read that unless you're in a small town with very little violence.

How about:

Jobless husband kills wife in house with kitchen knife

Ah, now we're inserting some opinion into it. You may think this isn't opinion, but it actually is. By adding "jobless" alongside the title then the writer is asserting that being jobless is linked to the motive for the killing. Again, you may think my idea is silly, but look at the first and the second statements. Which one leaves you with assumptions? Or at the very least, ideas?

How about this:

Jobless white man kills Latino wife with kitchen knife

See where I'm going with this? -- the more information that I add to the title then the more that Joe public assume that it is linked to the motive of the killing. Now we know that he's jobless and white, and she's Latino - must be something to do with racial unemployment tension. Even if it isn't. And it almost always isn't. This is how news is becoming heavily opinionated.

Today, in 2019 we're sort of at:

Jobless white man kills Latino wife with kitchen knife. Police chief makes speech about how men need to do better.

What a load of old tosh, right? Nothing in here is even related to the crime. It's heavily saturated with opinion, and bias. Opinionated trash designed to use the misfortune of others to get clicks and sell some advertisements, and perhaps to serve a further agenda.

So when you're next reading something be careful what you read. Or well don't be careful, just understand their stance and try and ask yourself why would they frame it the way it's being framed. What do they gain from saying it that way?

Framing is a sneaky way of telling you what's happened without needing to read any further. It's a way of adding information to an article title to misrepresent what's happened. Take me for example; I've had past mental health problems, been locked up in a secure facility, and been under psychologists and psychiatrists throughout my entire life (apart the last ten years) and if I were to challenge any sort of popular narrative in a publication could you imagine some of the things that could be published about me?

I've been positioning the narrative that men should be focusing on helping other men to be better and have been quite outspoken about it recently. The popular opinion seems to be that men need to be better for women; that's how they become better men. Whereas I think men become better men through learning from other good men -- could you imagine if a popular publication picked my article up and did a little digging?

Ex alcoholic incel with mental health problems claims that men learn to be better from other good men, not women.

Could you just imagine the outrage? If you didn't know me, and weren't the sort of person to judge someone only when they got to talking to them personally, then you'd think I was talking out my arse -- it wouldn't matter if I had worked with hundreds of men in the past, and won awards for it. It would only matter what the headline said -- people don't dig too deep these days.

All in all, learn the words these people do to stir up emotion in your mind and try and stop reacting to it. Get smart. Play by their rules, not the way they want to play you.

Peace :)



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Hello @raymondspeaks, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!

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