Phil 1102: Critical Thinking

1. How to manipulate people (and how you, yourself, are manipulated) Phil 1102: Critical Thinking

2. Explicit • In the extreme: Zimbardo’s ‘Quiet Rage’ • Arbitrary rules enforced arbitrarily • Mindless work • Rewards given to those who cooperate • Enforcement by peers • Divide and conquer

3. Implicit: • Arbitrary rules enforced arbitrarily:

5. Mindless, repetitive work • High school

6. Enforcement of (organic) arbitrary rules by peers

9. Festinger Cognitive Dissonance Suppose you were asked to perform a mindless, annoying task for ½ hour. We compensate you $20.

10. Now suppose that you were asked to perform a mindless, annoying task for ½ hour. We compensate you nothing. Which task was more unpleasant?

11. Festinger showed that people consistently rated the tasks for which they were compensated as more unpleasant than the tasks for which they were not compensated. • Why?

12. The theory is this: People like to have their minds in balance – so if you throw one side out of whack, they will believe false things in order to maintain balance – even if it means distrusting their own intuitions. (It wasn’t that bad, but he wouldn’t pay me if it was painless – therefore, it really was bad, and I just didn’t notice) (Bad life? Buy a French car)

13. Cult-think • “One of us. One of us.” • ‘Belonging’ love-bombing • Being ‘in’ on ‘it’ / knowing something that others don’t. • Linux, Mac-users, VW owners, Residents of the Pacific NW. • Last: the ‘Calvinist’ rationality.

14. Marketing and Language… Some of your aspirations tend to be fairly unrealistic. At times, you are extroverted, addable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary and reserved. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. you pride yourself on being an independent thinker and do not accept other's opinion without satisfactory proof.You prefer a certain amount of change and variety, and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitationsAt times you have serious doubts about whether you have made the right decision or have done the right thing. Disciplined and controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside.You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. you have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a strong need for other people to like you and for them to admire you.

15. Our Results? • Nil – n=0! • Last semester: 11 users = 5.54

16. Why generalities? The voters should assume I have no litmus test on that issue or any other issue. Voters will know I'll put competent judges on the bench. People who will strictly interpret the Constitution and not use the bench for writing social policy. That is going to be a big difference between my opponent and me. I believe that the judges ought not to take the place of the legislative branch of government. That they're appointed for life and that they ought to look at the Constitution as sacred. They shouldn't misuse their bench. I don't believe in liberal activist judges. I believe in strict constructionists. Those are the kind of judges I will appoint. I've named four in the State of Texas and ask the people to check out their qualifications, their deliberations. They're good, solid men and women who have made good, sound judgments on behalf of the people of Texas.

17. Claims: • Not be chosen by a litmus test • Be competent • Interpret the constitution strictly • Not use the bench for writing social policy • Look at the constitution as sacred • Not misuse the bench • Not be liberal activists • Be strict constructivists • Be good, solid men and women who make good, solid decisions

18. Example: Gore 2000 • Vice President Al Gore, reaching for a personal example to illustrate the breathtaking costs of some prescription drugs, told seniors in Florida last month that his mother-in-law pays nearly three times as much for the same arthritis medicine used for his ailing dog, Shiloh... (Published on September 18, 2000 by the Boston Globe)

19. Videos: • Debate 2, Q 16 • Debate 3, Q 14

20. Orwell’s advice: I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

21. Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

22. Orwell The first contains forty-nine words but only sixty syllables, and all its words are those of everyday life. The second contains thirty-eight words of ninety syllables: eighteen of those words are from Latin roots, and one from Greek. The first sentence contains six vivid images, and only one phrase ("time and chance") that could be called vague. The second contains not a single fresh, arresting phrase, and in spite of its ninety syllables it gives only a shortened version of the meaning contained in the first.

23. Fallacies: • Embedding in the mouths of others: • Video 1: Fox News: ad hominem email • Video 2: Moveon Pac: Richard Clarke

24. Inverted Fallacy: • "We assess that Baghdad has begun renewed production of mustard..." • "Baghdad has begun renewed production of mustard...". • Monday, July 12, 2004

25. Inverted Fallacy: • "assesses that the tubes probably are not part of the [nuclear] program." • "Most intelligence specialists assess this to be the intended use, but some believe that the tubes are probably intended to conventional weapons programs." • Monday, July 12, 2004

27. USGS Warming will also cause reductions in the mountain glaciers and advance the timing of the melt of mountain snow packs in the polar region. In turn, runoff rates will change and flood potential will be altered in ways that are currently not well understood. There will be significant shifts in the seasonality of runoff that will have serious impacts on native populations that rely on fishing and hunting for their livelihood. These changes will be further complicated by sifts in precipitation regimes and a possible intensification and increased frequency of extreme hydrologic events.

28. Whitehouse • Warming could also lead to change in the water cycle in polar regions.

30. USGS & WH • The challenge for the USGCRP is to provide the best possible scientific basis for documenting, diagnosing and projecting... • The challenge for the USGCRP is to provide the best possible scientific basis for documenting, understanding and projecting...

31. USGS • In this new phase of the climate science programs, information that compares the potential consequences of different responses to global changes, including climate change, will be developed in a form useful to national debate and decision making.

32. Whitehouse • In this new phase of the climate science programs, information that might allow comparison of the potential consequences of different responses to global changes, including climate change, will be pursued.

33. Fallacies of Language • Equivocation • Shifting the goalposts • Straw Man • Quoting out of context • Orwell / Luntz

34. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"

35. I did not engage in any kind of sexual activity with that woman • When Clinton meant: I did not have penetrative sex with that woman.

36. ‘Last Throes’ BLITZER[The commander of the U.S. Military Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid] says that the insurgency now is at a strength undiminished as it was six months ago, and he says there are actually more foreign fighters in Iraq now than there were six months ago. That doesn't sound like the last throes.CHENEY: No, I would disagree. If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a violent period -- the throes of a revolution. The point would be that the conflict will be intense, but it's intense because the terrorists understand if we're successful at accomplishing our objective, standing up a democracy in Iraq, that that's a huge defeat for them. They'll do everything they can to stop it.

37. Entertainment: • See the exchange with Scott McClellan online – and Jon Stewart’s monologue on the topic!

38. Others? • Bush ‘Victory’ • PFA 11 • SBV ‘Any Questions’

39. ‘No True’ • No true American can support al Queda • No true Catholic can support Roe v Wade

40. Shifting the goal posts • Dec 11, 2002: White house press release: • Weapons of mass destruction pose a grave danger. They could allow America's adversaries to inflict massive harm against our country, our military forces abroad, and our friends and allies. Some rogue states, including several that support terrorism, already possess WMD and are seeking even greater capabilities, as tools of coercion. For them, these are weapons of choice intended to deter us from responding to their aggression against our friends in vital regions of interest. For terrorists, WMD would provide the ability to kill large numbers of our people without warning. They would give them the power to murder without conscience on a scale to match their hatred for our country and our values.

41. G.W. Bush, Feb. 2003, in a speech to religions broadcasters • "Chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained... ... Secretly, without fingerprints, Saddam Hussein could provide one of this hidden weapons to terrorists or help them develop their own. Saddam Hussein is a threat. He's a threat to the United States of America."

42. Apr 29, 2003: White house press release • Saddam Hussein launched a large-scale chemical weapons attack against Iraq's Kurdish population in the late 1980s, ... Saddam Hussein continues his efforts to develop chemical weapons: ...Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weaponsdevelopment program before the Gulf War and continues his work to develop a nuclear weapon:...

43. Jan 2004: State of the Union: • Some in this chamber, and in our country, did not support the liberation of Iraq. Objections to war often come from principled motives. But let us be candid about the consequences of leaving Saddam Hussein in power. We're seeking all the facts. Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations. Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day. Had we failed to act,... (State of the Union, 2004)

44. Straw Man • "heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood" Kerry actually said, while in New York is this: • "Every performer tonight, in their own way, either verbally or through their music, through their lyrics, have conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country"

45. Again: "Today he said, and I quote, ‘We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure’. He’s saying he prefers the stability of a dictatorship to the hope and security of democracy." What Kerry actually said is this: "Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell. But that was not, that was not in and of itself, a reason to go to war. The satisfaction that we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America left secure..."

46. Quoting out of context Where would Christianity be if Jesus got eight to fifteen years with time off for good behavior? -James Donovan, on the floor of the NY State Senate (see google)

47. A test Judging by the most recent communications that we have received from Afghanistan in the form of encrypted cables, as well as by telephone conferences... the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply. There, as we know from the previous cables, [a division of the army] was stationed, and had restored order, but now we have received news that this division has essentially collapsed. An artillery regiment and one infantry regiment comprising that division have gone over to the insurgents. Bands of saboteurs and terrorists, having infiltrated from the territory of Pakistan, trained and armed not only with the participation of Pakistani forces but also of [a foreign power] are committing atrocities.. The insurgents infiltrating into the territory... from Pakistan and Iran have joined forces with domestic [resistance]. The latter is especially comprised of religious fanatics. The number of insurgents is difficult to determine, but our [commanders] tell us that they are thousands, literally thousands.

48. Soviet General named Gromyko reporting to L.I. Breshnev on March 17, 1979.

49. in 1983, a Soviet journalist named Vladimir Danchev referred, on air, to the Soviet actions in Afghanistan as an 'invasion'. The Communist party preferred the term 'liberation', as Breshnev had pointed out, it can't be an invasion if the forces had been 'invited' in by the Government to help fight the terrorist, saboteurs and religious fanatics. Vladimir Danchev had the courage to call an invasion an 'invasion', and for that, the Soviets took him away to be 'cured' of his 'illness'.

50. Zell Miller, RNC 2004: