Tag: framing

The music is easy music but the underlying motivation for having posted it is one of great unease.

JeffLieber opined on DD that it is our own fault we have no influence on government.

THEY are avoiding us because they simply do not think that we — the FAR LEFT — can be reasoned with.

THEY believe, and somewhat rightly so, that we are much more interested in clinging to our self-righteous fury then in being able to manage our disappointments and seeking compromise so they show up when its time for the cash or the grass-roots jolt of energy and then disappear when it comes time to legislate.

THEY believe we are the extremists, no more “reality based” than those at Little Green Footfungus because every slight seems to wipe away YEARS of good governance on issues we care about.

I will counter below, as OPOL did brilliantly in his own counter-essay. I’ll let his delineation of the crimes stand. He said it perfectly, and spoke for me on that account.

We have to deal with these guys…and not by making nice with them.  These people are dangerous.  Our laws are meant to protect us from people like this, and we need to see that they do.  This is no time to look the other way.

Do I want truth and reconciliation?  No sir!  I want trials and convictions.  We can talk about reconciliation after we’ve settled a few accountability issues.  How about someone taking responsibility for a change?

The video will tell you I’m not ready to make nice either.

I train dogs for a living and am a positive trainer.

We rely on reward and repetition and allow the dogs to make the decision.

Most people don't believe me when I tell them that leaving the decision up to the dog works better than making it for them. It just doesn't make any sense that we leave decisions up to the dogs – it goes against everything they know about training dogs.”How can they do something if I don't tell them what to do?”

Learning is a Journey

Telling a dog what to do too early short circuits the learning process.

Giving the answer to the test:

“The answer is 'C'… shut up kid, I said the answer is 'C'!”

might help the kid pass this test, but it's not learning. Change the test and failure is all but guaranteed.

Learning is a journey, it's not a destination. It happens in the preperation for the test, it's not just getting the right answer.

The reading, the research, the mistakes made in homework – that's where learning takes place. If a student makes that journey, they can pass any test.

Our clients often try to direct their dogs to do things that short circuit the learning process. They try to take short cuts to pass the 'test' (get the behavior).

This is a problem because we, as teachers, don't really care as much about this particular behavior at this particular time. We are more concerned with the learning process.

We want to give the dogs the opportunity to learn the underlying concepts so they can perform this behavior any time any where and be wildly successful, at which point we drop the cue on it. (grossly simplified, but you get the idea…) This also allows the dog to learn variations of this behavior and other similar behaviors very quickly.

If we drop the cue on it, or even worse, give a command (do this or else) too early, we get limited understanding, confusion and a high percentage of failure. Sure we might get to the answer faster, but what if the test changes? The learning hasn't happened. If the learning hasn't happened the dog has a very limited understanding of that behavior.

In my neck of the woods, the local Republicans are showing a real green thumb (actually, perhaps green hammer) as there is green sprouting all over. Green signs with a gas pump are appearing with the words “Drill Now! Pay Less! Vote GOP!”

Now, other than the direct linkage of a gas pump and the Republican Party (the Grand Oil Party), it is hard to see any honesty in this poster. It is a continuation of the concerted Republican efforts to mislead and lie to the American people about critical energy issues. It is, in fact, impressive that this sign can be deceptive and simply dishonest on so many levels at the same time.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

To call a spade a bloody shovel means more than speaking plainly; rather, it means saying something that is true but unpalatable — or impolitic.

During an otherwise stellar appearance on David Letterman’s show last night, Barack Obama missed an opportunity to deliver a kidney punch to John McCain. In my view, this missed opportunity vividly exemplifies a weakness in the election style Democrats have used over the past three decades.

(I’m not saying Obama’s campaign exemplifies this style; to the contrary, despite a few missteps — and who among us could do better? — I submit that, given the fact that Barack Obama has steamrolled over every obstacle thus far, this man just might know better than anyone how to correct the Democratic Party’s mistakes of the past and finally, FINALLY beat these bastards in this rigged game. But I’m making a point here, so… bear with me.)

Letterman asked, and I’m paraphrasing,

“If you’d been able to pick your Vice-Presidential running mate after McCain picked Palin, would you have chosen differently?”

Obama answered — and again, I’m paraphrasing:

“I chose the person I want in the room with me, giving me wise advice and different points of view…”

Intelligent, cogent and sincere.

But I think he should have phrased it thusly:

“Maybe this is another difference between Senator McCain and me:

I didn’t pick my running mate because I thought he would help me WIN; I picked him because I thought he would help me GOVERN.”

Stark, simple and true. Did John McCain pick Sarah Palin because he thought she was the best of all possible candidates for the role of Vice-President in a McCain Administration?

The very suggestion is a joke. Nobody could make that suggestion with a straight face unless he worked for McCain or Fox News. McCain picked Palin to help him win the election.

Just one more in an endless series of proofs that John McCain’s campaign slogan of “Country First” is an empty, shallow and insulting lie.

Getting Started

Barack Obama said something today that I think is beautiful from a framing perspective:

I mean it’s like these guys take pride in ignorance! It’s like they like being ignorant.

(hat tip to ruff4life at the Great Orange Satan)

I believe this is the counter frame to the Elitist Democrat.

Nobody wants to be ignorant, and depending on leaders who are proud of their ignorance and demand ignorance from their followers cannot be good for the running of a country.

Ignorance is simply not good public policy.

There was this great essay the other day by Diane W: Code Talking White Trash & Exploitation Capitalism that is a must read for some uplifting real life political action.

Her framing used in the discussion was extremely interesting to me, as Diane NAILED it.  Here's some analysis of her framing from a comment I posted on her essay:

Initial Analysis 

There is NOT economic parity nor economic equal chance in this country. I have studied the actual demographics. The middle class is gone, honey, and 90% of the wealth in this country is now in 1% of the hands. There are no jobs. All these divisionary tactics keep us blaming eachother instead of the real problem. Greed. The haves and the have-nots.

• Fairness
• Opportunity
• Community/Empathy

I'll give you American Axle as an example. Those hard-working factory people, men and women who may have given as much as 30 years of their lives working their butts off, just took a 50% pay cut. Now the houses and student loans and their lifestyles had reflected a certain base pay, a pay no longer available to them. What happens to the broader market when all those people are foreclosed upon, because the money is no longer there? Are you going to yell “bootstraps” at all these workers?

• Fairness
• Opportunity
• Community/Empathy

When there are no jobs, neighborhoods die, stores close, people move away, schools have no tax-base. In the meantime GM exec's make 100 times what the factory workers who actually do the work make, and they send those jobs to goddamned Vietnam. Opportunity Empathy This is a class war. Husbands can't support their families, women have to work, kids have to become latch-key kids… Thats whats wrong with America!

A solution: No darling, at one time Lee Iaccoca took NO salary for a few years, probably cashed in one of his Lears to survive it, to keep his company up and running, to make sure workers could afford the cars they made. 

• Responsibility
• Accountability
• Empathy 

The PROBLEM isn't those people, the problem is the greed of the rich.

This conversation is OVER.

I love the conclusion. It's a done deal. 

This is also interesting because it flies in the face of Lakoffian (is that a word?) frame construction… Values first, then metaphor…It pulls the metaphor first, the illustration of the values.

I think this is the way that frames should be built. Once you have the illustrations, you deconstruct them pull out the values and improve and expand upon the illustrations that are similarly well understood and emotive.

I really love this, Diane. It has taught me a lot. I usually demonize Iococca because of the Pinto and accountability and responsibility, but you've tapped into the nostalgia and base assumptions that were in play during his success.

It's great.

Thanks.

“Don’t talk to Strangers.”



Mom & Dad

The dark car rolls up and the window slides down…

“Hey kid! Want some candy.” You like puppies, right?”

“All I need is your name, address, phone number and you’ll need to initial… right here, and sign here…Aah, don’t bother reading it, I’m a good guy. Trust me.”

When I took my last long trip, I took along George Carlin’s “When Will Jesus Bring the Porkchops.”  I’ve been a fan for years, but was particularly struck by his treatment of the prevalance of euphemisms.  For a long time, I’ve noticed sanitized language used to talk about war (eg. “collateral damage” or “precision bombing”).  It’s not hard to find it when reading history (eg. “Indian removal” or “internment camps”).  I’ve been thinking about the propaganda and the framing of messages we’ve seen in the more recent past, and it all fit.

As George points out, euphemisms obscure meaing rather than enhance it; they shade the truth.  They may replace words that people are uncomfortable with or simply put a better face on things that sound too negative.  They may also dress up something that seems too ordinary.  “Thighs” become “drumsticks,” “crow’s feet” are “laugh lines,” and “pimples” are “blemishes.”

“Toilet paper” is “bathroom tissue,” and “sweatpants” are “active wear.”  “Second-hand clothing” is now “vintage apparel.”  “Toupees” have been referred to as “hair appliances” or even a “hair replacement system,” much as an “answering machine” is an “answering system” or a “mattress and box spring” is a “sleep system.”  Cars now have “braking systems” rather than just brakes, and the seat belts and air bags are an “impact-management system.”  We watch “animation” rather than lowly “cartoons” or “daytime dramas” rather than “soap operas.”  

Theaters have become “performance spaces,” and arenas are now “event centers.”  Hospitals are “medical centers,” libraries are “learning resource centers” and so on.  “Profits” are “earnings,” “criticism” is “feedback” and “special delivery” is now “priority mail.”  “Trailers” are “manufactured homes,” “mouthwash” is a “dental rinse,” “soap” is a “clarifying bar,” and “hair spray” is a “holding mist” or “sculpting gel.  “Cough drops” are “lozenges,” and “constipation and diahrea” are “occasional irregularity and lower gastric distress.”

Euphemisms have been used to “soften the language” when it comes to the condition in combat where a soldier’s nervous system has reached the breaking point.  In World War I, it was called “shell shock.”  In World War II, it became “battle fatigue,” definitely less harsh-sounding, though two syllables became four.  

By the Korean War, the condition became known as “operational exhaustion,” nice and sterile sounding, like something that might happen to your car.  Finally Vietnam, and “post-traumatic stress disorder.”  It still has eight syllables, but has been hyphenated.

Published also today at Democracy Cell Projectand Silenced Majority Project