One of the things that really bother me is Neural Linguistic Programming or NLP. It is the science of using language as a psychological tool to manipulate people. It is not voodoo or superstition, it is a proven method. Salesmen use it, it's called a "pitch" and it's not just telling you the good points. It's about changing your behavior, specifically your resistance to buying, with words. However the idea generated a lot more interest when people started writing books telling young men how to use these techniques to pick up girls. How complimenting a girls friend will make that girl more likely to want to please you or how pointing out some small flaw a woman has after complimenting her will leave her wanting to prove herself to you, while disarming her.
Now keeping that in mind I want to tell you a little story. My former brother in law, I'll call him G, used to work as my apprentice. Now several times a day, before work, morning coffee break, lunch, and afternoon coffee break, we would share a newspaper switching sections as the day went on. Now I don't want to disparage G in anyway because he was a really good guy. Not only a really nice person, but a hard worker and an honest person. But G was just not that smart. I would guess his IQ somewhere in the low 90's, and basically a functional illiterate. While he could read and write and do basic math, his vocabulary was limited as were his cognitive abilities. And what I found out after a while was that we could read the same exact article but get two completely different things out of it.
You see, when people are reading and they see a word they don't recognize, they don't go and look it up, at least most don't. What they do is skip over the word and it's flagged as "the word I don't know" and the reading goes on. However, those with limited vocabulary end up skipping over a lot of words and the end result is that they don't walk away and say "wow, I didn't really understand that article". Instead they walk away with the meaning of the article with all the words they skipped over. So if one can predict the literacy level of ones constituents, one can send them a message that is different than the one your opponents who are more literate are getting.
So it's becomes pretty obvious why political parties, news channels, candidates that cater to the less literate, would be interested in NLP. And that is what we have going on right now. If one looks at the laws that Republicans pass when it power, compared to what they say when running, it's obvious they are two different things, yet people continue to vote for them, even though it's against their own interests.
It's not an accident that American schools controlled by mostly christian school boards are keeping the kids stupid, it's necessary. And it's not a coincedence that the Republican electorate are just not as smart(as a group), than their counterparts either Democratic or Independent and also leads to prejudice.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/study-su ... d-in-hand/
Study Suggests Low IQ, Social Conservatism, And Prejudice Go Hand In Hand
by Frances Martel | 3:51 pm, January 28th, 2012
Are claims that conservatism is anti-science as valid as those that science is anti-conservative? No one has really asked or found an answer, but a new study from Brock University in Ontario will be sure to spark that very conversation. Psychologists have found that racism and general prejudice as well as social conservatism are linked to low IQ levels.
According to Live Science, the claim is not a Colbertian reality has a well-known liberal bias claim, but one that those with low IQ levels tend to gravitate to simpler worldviews, that can lead to prejudice and adherence to a rigid mindset:
The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.
The point is not to disparage, but to bring awareness. I find it upsetting when I hear that men are voting Republican because they think it's unmanly to vote Democrat or because they are afraid members of their church won't approve. Our system can't work like that. The point is to wake up and pay attention to what politicians do and not what they say. These guys are hiring professionals at NLP to write speeches and position papers for them and it's not just Republicans doing it.
People are being programmed to accept fascism and are welcoming it with open arms calling it freedom.
Elizabeth
. Though, please try to interpret what I'm writing less argumentatively -- for example, I was most certainly arguing that individuals with gender identity issues should have access to surgery, not being forced to undergo surgery. It is a little annoying. I'm not against you, just exploring a subject.