Toxic Sludge, ch. 10: The Torturer's Lobby

I find the coverage of Columbian events [particularly in the beginning of this chapter] to be quite disturbing. The idea of people slaughtering members of their own community in order to appear to be doing their rightful tasks as members of the Columbian military either shows a lack of dedication to their job or a frantic scurry to cover up mistakes or sloppy work.

The other passage which stuck out when I read it was the description of Escobar's "prison". I firmly believe that if most people can't afford the luxeries of the prison you're staying at, you probably have too many privileges for one of the current condition. Then again, I never thought I'd have to set a guideline for the luxeries of prisoners. Perhaps it's my upbringing of bad American television, or my general disgust for drugs and those who make a living off of them, but I feel that even taken out of Escobar's personal offense, no prisoner should be held in a 'cell' comparable to a celebrity's summer home.
Maybe that's just me. (::shrugs::)

un*Spun Ch. 9: "staying unSpun"

Pretty much the entire last "chapter" (slash-conclusion) was dedicated to the Hoodia cactus crisis. Though I have to admit that I'm intrigued by the plant and it's possible effects on hunger control, the authors of the text make it quite clear that there is no such product that is going to be available for several years after its publication (which is still fairly recent, 2007). The Hoodia predicament is a fairly accurate example for what is seen throughout advertising all the time: agencies and companies get a whiff of a possible product which will appeal to a majority of people, then try and scheme until they can find a way to pass off their own version of the product. And, as the text shows, it's very likely that those products may be made out of nothing to do with the actual subject at hand.

A current product that comes to mind is the 5-hour-energy drinks. Not one month passed from the first time I saw the commercial til I started seeing all of the other types of 5-hour energy boost drinks, boasting their own product as the most effective, with "no crashes!" Also, even more recently, there have been commercials for "6-hour-power!", which is basically the same (perhaps bogus, I've no desire to try the) product, except it's makers added a pinch more strength, adding on a full hour to it's predecessor. I can't say I've done any background research on the products, but they sound fairly exaggerated, or perhaps faulty, altogether.

"un*Spun" - Was Clarence Darrow a Creationist?

This chapter has all to do with checking sources, which sounds like a quite a basic thing to do. All throughout high school, we as students are given guidelines and lists of ways to check our resources for validity. In college we're warned time after time of plagiarism and it's horrifying consequences which could leave our future marred and possibly ruined.

But even if we do check these sources as valid, and as set up by respectable people and organizations, who's to say the people behind the source haven't been tricked in some way? Though it may not effect a grade on a paper, there is then a falsehood which is continuing to be spread via misled sources.

Though "un*Spun" discusses multiple ways of thoroughly checking facts, including scanning for holes in arguments and statements that just don't quite line up with the rest of the text, they stress the fact that information should be repeated in multiple sources in order to relay the most comfort in regarding that fact as true. No matter the amount of academic credentials, information received only from one text has a higher possibility of being "spun" than information that is verified through multiple sources.

"Un*Spun" Chapter 6: The Great Crow Fallacy

To be perfectly honest, the 'great crow fallacy' seems to be a finding based of an extremely rare coincidence, which [eventually] was correctly documented at such. Though I acknowledge and believe animals to be extremely intelligent and capable in many different areas, I feel this 'fallacy' was created off of someone's whim of finding human ways of thinking in animal beings. Perhaps this is just the strange knowledge of a person who watched too much Animal Planet as a kid, but I find it common knowledge or assumption that birds would drop nuts, snail shells, etc. off high areas to try and crack open the protective husk to find their food. Granted, it shouldn't seem surprising that crows would do this over a road - most birds when using this method look for rocks or other hard surfaces - such as a road would appear.

Allow me to return to the idea of humans interpreting animal actions - this has been done for decades, centuries perhaps. When I was younger, my grandfather always told me that you knew it was going to rain when the cows laid down in the pasture. We base our length of winter off if a groundhog sees his shadow on a specified day of the year. Now, we do know that animals have innate senses which we as humans will never be able to tap into, but I feel like when we try to interpret their actions in order to provide backing evidence for a case, that we extend beyond our appropriated sense of data and information pool.

"un*Spun" - Facts can save your life.

I found it oddly interesting that the basis of this chapter brought my thoughts to one of the basic human principles our parents [attempt] to teach us from the minute we're aware: "be honest", "don't lie", "tell the truth". from the moment we are able to recognize that we ourselves can create 'spin' [though at the time we just realize it to be 'fibbing', 'white lies', or an avoidance of what really happened], our superiors and elders pass down the moral lessons which tell us to be a forever good, honest, human being.

Of course, it needs to be realized that hardly any human being goes throughout life telling the truth, 100% of the time. And, just as our parents warned us, we experience consequences - when we're younger, we receive a time-out, teenagers get grounded, and once we're adults, we feel our disappointment in ourselves and have to deal with any effects of our dishonest actions. The latter is pointed out in multiple examples throughout the chapter, though the dishonesty discussed in the text is very much intended. Unfortunately, dishonesty in advertising and politics is spread to a much larger group of people, an audience that grows exponentially with every commercial or click of a computer mouse. Therefore, more people ["innocents"] may also be affected by the lies spread about for want of personal gain and/or profit, which may ultimately lead to unfortunate consequences for the victim, as in the case of the tax shortcut.

'un-spun' - UFO Cults & Us

I feel like some of the 'spin' discussed in this chapter was absolutely ridiculous, while other parts of it made total and absolute sense.

For instance: Mrs. Keech and her 'faithful followers' of the Guardians of Planet Clarion. A story where an esteemed person in the practice is relayed a message from a supreme being, and is then to spread it out onto others. When put in this sense, it parallels most, if not all, religions - which should make it seem less unbelieveable that it gained followers in the first place. What was more surprising to me was the fact that there were still so many followers after the 'fake flood' incident. Granted, "un-Spun" does quite a good job at bringing every story down to it's basic lining, so perhaps in reality the circumstances were much more convincing. The whole idea also reminds me of the drama and hype that surrounded Y2K. People went crazy transferring and withdrawing money from banks, stocking up on food essentials, and preparing for whatever they could think of. But when the ball dropped on Dec. 31st, life, society, and technology went on, completely unaffected.

What I do find very relatable are the multiple examples of confirmation bias, which ultimately, taken to an extreme, will produce results such as that of the Clarion followers.
Human beings, no matter their personality, are prideful, self-centered, and stubborn at our very cores, despite how our individual upbrings may conceal those such qualities. The kindest people we meet, the most genuine people we know, all have their primal instincts. The need to be right is one of them, and it runs dominantly through us, especially when our ideas are being challenged. When something we believe in is challenged or compared, we could feel a variety of emotions, and respond to each differently, as described in the chapter. We could feel trapped, offended, or misunderstood, and in turn become very defensive, lash out our opinions, or just claim our superior judgement until we've comforted ourselves. I think these urges and emotions are ever present, no matter how open-minded we may be, and in turn we influence ourselves further down a certain mental path in according to our beliefs. Viscious cycle, eh?

"un-spun" - from snake oil to emu oil.

To begin, I am really enjoying and appreciating this little book. I think it states a lot of things that the 'common people' may be picking up on, but don't fully comprehend or pay attention to when it comes to propaganda, predominantly in advertisements and politics.
The very first example given is a perfect case of what I feel is the common setup of advertising propaganda. Sellers gauge what is a current focus of people's problems, and then sell them a "cure" for it (or at least something that will help take away the severity). However, later in the chapter there was another example of some such "miracle" remedy. Not to try and rank propaganda's effectiveness or credibility, but Guerro's "Supreme Greens" formula was advertised as able to cure everything from fatigue to cancer, along with helping the consumer lose weight. Written in the text, it seems highly unbelievable that anyone would believe such a claim (when the cure for cancer is still unknown, and if it were to be found, it would most likely be published from somewhere other than an infomercial). However, Guerro still managed to sell his product, which just goes to show how much "spin" the public is willing to believe, despite its form.