Truth Is Like Poetry, And Most People F***ing Hate Poetry - Affinity Fraud, False Consciousness, And Why We Are Giving More Power To Money
"Truth is like Poetry, and most people f***ing hate poetry"
You also probably love that quote ಠ‿↼ . Obviously, I do. It captures something I was trying to convey in the chapter titled The Truth & The Story (Episode 2 - Part 7). Generally, people are moved by stories, not by facts and information. Which is why entire communities of people will support policies that have been proven disastrous over, and over, and over again.
I've run across several videos that capture this idea very well. The first one that comes to mind is a +TED Talk by +Simon Sinek titled How Great Leaders Inspire Action.
In the video, Simon explains things like diffusion of innovation. But the key phrase in his talk is this one:
People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
Detailing the day to day activities involved in writing is not as compelling as sharing with you what things motivate me to write. My motivations are much more compelling story elements than the software I use, how many hours I write per day, etc.
Compelling stories motivate most people. Empirical evidence does not.
Truth is like poetry, and most people f***ing hate poetry.
The American Fathers Episode 2 - in which Sheila and Jasira discuss how dynasties came to rule the country, whether that rule was inevitable or not, and why - tries to touch on this dynamic.
The panelists in this 92Y presentation touch on this topic early on in their discussion - people are clearly more motivated by stories they prefer than by information and evidence, and that is leading our society to make mistakes that are totally predictable for people who are willing and able to accept the truth.
Problem is, truth is like poetry.
false con·scious·ness noun noun: false consciousness; plural noun: false consciousnesses (especially in Marxist theory) a way of thinking that prevents a person from perceiving the true nature of their social or economic situation.
Affinity fraud refers to investment scams that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups. The fraudsters who promote affinity scams frequently are - or pretend to be - members of the group.
Oct 9, 2013 SEC.gov | Affinity Fraud: How to Avoid Investment Scams ...
In an appearance on the +Melissa Harris-Perry | MSNBC show, +Whitney Dow talked about how Americans' perceptions of their situation are not borne out by empirical data regarding their day to day lives.
"Donald Trump has set the debate in unreality. So, this idea that he said, OK, I`m going to decide that all humans can fly and we all debate like at what altitude. That`s kind of what`s going on with the immigration debate. I mean, every study has shown that immigrants, no matter where they`re from – whether they`re here legally or not legally – that their rates of incarceration, of violent crime are historic – are much lower than native Americans – than I hate to say native Americans, but you know, legal Americans. It`s really interesting that one of them said since like 1993, that immigration has increased – legal immigration increased has tripled and violent crime among immigrants has gone down by 48 percent. So it`s not a rational argument and it goes back to a lot of things that I see when doing the Whiteness Project, is that there is a fundamental disconnect from the reality of people`s experience, objective experience, what the world actually is objectively if you look at the data, and how they`re experiencing it. And it`s very, very strange but it is no question that that cohort of working class Americans are really trying to deal with this new reality."
The Wages of Whiteness
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