Saturday, July 13, 2013

Book in progress comments accepted Generalization in the Abstract...

Arguing a point of view using generalizations in the abstract is fine, but that's not what the Media-Ocracy does.

The Media-Ocracy takes its generalizations and applies them to specific cases.  Logicians call that using the
Fallacy of Accident.  For instance, shooting someone is a crime, and in the course of duty sometimes police officers have to shoot dangerous people.  The Media-Ocracy would then jump to the false conclusion that any police officer who shoots a bad guy is, himself, a criminal!

They also make this logical mistake in reverse, which is called the
Fallacy of Reverse Accident.  The Media-Ocracy would have you believe that because one police officer may have acted improperly, all our men and women in blue are bad.

The media's lack of integrity drives it to spread these falsehoods across the broadcast and print outlets, and the Internet is even worse.  This
illogic spread by the Media-Ocracy is accepted as fact by much of the American public.  The media promotes conflict by highlighting the negative and contentious.  Have you ever heard a news report telling you that all the flights into Phoenix landed safely today?  Of course not!  But if one plane goes down, the media scares the public into thinking such occurrences are commonplace.  That's the logical fallacy of “argumentum in terrorem”, or appeal to fear.  Now we are seeing the self-appointed guardians of the realm training their man Obama to use their revolting tactic of wielding fear like a cudgel.

The same rules apply to our every day conversations.  We all know someone who is always contrary, citing exceptions to the rule. If your friend tells you that, “Tax cuts are bad for business.  I'm an accountant, and lower taxes mean fewer customers hiring me to save them on their taxes,” you are probably not going to call him on his fallacious reasoning.  Your have “bought” the crap your friend is “selling.”  The reason we do this is because the Media-Ocracy, which has surrounded most Americans in this generation, has programmed us to be afraid of circumstances beyond our control, instead of inspiring Americans to reach higher, work harder and succeed despite adversity.

The America I love doesn't focus on what it cannot do; it focuses on our incredible power and potential.

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