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[–] kestrel9 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

"This topic strikes at a larger and much more problematic issue in this country, and that is this absence of, or rather the absence of the need for, empirical evidence — both for the average America at home, and for the mainstream media."

It's like taking the feelings of teenagers and making that the empirical lense for interpreting life events.

Too many people are taught that strong emotions are empirical evidence of whatever they attribute them too, whether those attributions hold any basis in fact or not. Without enough life experience and critical thinking skills, without enough facts or even just a bit of perspective...feelings rule; feelings are what make you informed and knowledgeable!

While feelings are real of course, they are caused by a myriad of entangled reasons, some normal and healthy, some not. They may be a reasonable response or not. They may be connected to something that really happened or not. Without getting in a whole essay over social engineering, suffice it to say that IMO it's a lot easier for social engineering purposes, to condition people's feelings by associating them with fundamental drives (sex sells, don't grocery shop when you're hungry etc. )

It's a fact that people experience emotions physically and cognitively. And as for facts, it takes time to teach critical thinking, and the principles of logic and reason, (regardless of whether feelings are associated with certain facts). Reasoning is not really helpful for social engineering unless the arguments are false or misleading to begin with, and are presented as logically true, then reinforced by creating strong emotion associations. Perhaps to add fear of questioning the conclusions (group think) or to create a mob mentality to silence anyone who does question the premise (enforcement through social engineering).

As a simple example of facts versus feelings versus associations, once there were some kids who were quite spooked and afraid because after looking through a window, they had seen a dead black cat on the floor of an empty house. Of course there's the cultural superstition that added to their panic. And it was exciting for them as well, like ghost stories around the campfire. It's not hard to imagine that for some of them, in their lives as adults, perhaps something could easily illicit an associated fear response...maybe in a slightly amplified way during a Halloween party or watching a scary movie, or maybe in some other way where the initial fear becomes associated with yet another setting or event and is magnified to a point of strong anxiety or even a phobia..."fear of black cats".

Okay, the point of fact I'm getting to is that I went to the house, looked in the window...it's wasn't a black cat at all, it was a black sweater someone left in a poorly lit part of the room. Their fear was real, and together they reaffirmed to each other the "fact" of what they all saw. Their fear response, however, caused them to flee right away, leaving no alternative explanations to challenge what and how they saw what they saw.