Political Manipulation 101: Keep Things Vague
Is the United States a free country?
Does gun ownership make society safe?
Can the United Nations save the planet?
My guess is that no matter whether you are liberal or conservative, you had immediate reactions to each of those questions. You may have jumped to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and ignored one important fact — the meaning of a few keywords has to be filled in. You jump to whatever meaning of ‘free’ comes to mind. You imagine that ‘saving the planet’ is either a dumb fantasy or the only political issue worth talking about.
You might be surprised to know there are ways of measuring freedom that allow us to compare one nation with another.
What does ‘safe’ mean? Does it mean there can be no violent crime? If so, then obviously having every adult carry a gun at all times will not make society safe. Even if we assume none of those armed citizens would EVER abuse their guns to commit violent acts, society would not be 100% safe from violent thugs and crazies. Taking everyone’s guns will not make society safe either. Even if we assume it was possible to confiscate all legally and illegally owned guns, society would not become safe by magic.
What would happen if we tried to “save the planet”? What would success look like? Maybe we can’t literally “save the planet” but we can do something that does something. But what will we do? Eliminate fossil fuels and stop eating meat? Maybe. It isn’t entirely clear. That is probably the point though.
Vague Definitions Keep Causes Afloat:
What in the world does that mean? You can never make society 100% safe for women, or 100% environmentally friendly or 100% free, whatever that means. But, who cares? The point is to keep people committed to the fight, paying attention, sharing memes, donating money. Both the Left and the Right are guilty of keeping things vague to help their causes.
Decide What’s Being Measured
Before you even try to find out what the pundit or politicians is using as a measurement, ask yourself this: How is this thing traditionally measured? You might be surprised to learn there are measurements of freedom out there. There are measures of development and prosperity as well. You can find short and reader-friendly explanations of them on Wikipedia by doing a simple Web search.
When pundits on the Left or the Right opine about how great the country is or how violent our inner cities are, or whatever, it helps to know how such things are measured. Then you can look at actual, reliable numbers that relate to the question.
Know When Comparisons Work and When They Don’t
It can be useful, for propaganda purposes, to compare one country to another without bothering to investigate whether the comparison is fair. Claiming that rape is far more common in Sweden than in the United States helps spread fear of immigrants. Why? Because rape is classified differently in each country. This is a classic “apples and oranges” comparison. Anti-immigrant activists and Islamophobes like to make these comparisons because rape stats in Sweden make it look like the country is becoming a crime-infested hellhole because of Black and Brown immigrants.
Comparing men, or women, or countries to some ill-defined comparison group is another fun way to keep a hollow or dishonest crusade in business. What am I trying to say? Well, think about violent crime in the United States or other countries. Think about poverty in the United States. Then think about poverty in places like Congo and Sudan or India and Bangladesh. Do those comparisons seem odd, maybe inappropriate? I mean, the United States is not like India or Sudan is it?
Well, no, the United States and Sudan are not in the same category of nations at all. The United States is much, much richer and has far more people. Maybe we shouldn’t compare the two in most cases. This is something interest groups and politicians tend to forget. When they feel like trolling us they might say the United States is much safer than Sudan. They might say Sudan bans guns and we don’t so we are safer. But, why are we comparing ourselves to a developing nation? Why not compare the United States to other wealthy nations, like Japan and France? How does the United States compare with them on measures like violent crime, life expectancy, or poverty? You can bet at least some of the pundits realize we won’t look that good. Knowing this, it only makes sense to shift our attention to poor nations.
So, that is Lesson 2 in Political Manipulation 101.
