h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Or, do you feel that You Are Being Lied To?

There is a large book called 'You Are Being Lied To,' published by Disinformation Books (http://www.disinfo.com) about lies in the media, politics, medical and scientific establishments, organized religeon, etc. For one article, the editor asked a bunch of people the question which forms the subject line. The answers ranged from personal reflections to socio-political critiques, but were all quite interesting.

Now, you have your say. Write whatever you want in response to the above question. I'll post my answer somewhen soon.

So you want to use us genuine hootoo users as a test sample?

Write something interesting about yourself to encourage me.

Now, are you genuine, or lying?

Am I, about my interest?

Our glorious, sincere and stand-up guy of a PM has lied and will continue to lie.

Regarding current events and the War on Terra, yes, I can believe that we are being 'lied to'...

With so much government disinfirmation one wonders what they are trying to hide.

Is it just politics,or are they told what to do and say?

"War on Terra"

Oh, now I *like* that!

H.

All the time.

Nobody's mentioned the business world yet. Buying things does NOT tend to make you happy. If anything the opposite, I'd say.

Oil companies 'buy' scientists to say climate change isn't humanity's fault, just like tobacco companies said smoking wasn't harmful when they knew it was.

The cosmetics industry lies and lies and lies, blinding people with pseudo-science. Etc etc

I think most people are just too complacent and ignorant to go and find the truth. People *want* to be comfortable, and not think too much about how our sociey really works.

'Are we beign lied to?' Depends what you mean by lieing and who we are talking about. in terms of polititions we are often given what seem like lies, but in the vast majority of cases are not* lies, merely 'stretching the truth', or 'alternative' ways of telling the truth; the obvious example, and relivent in the UK at the moment as we have just had the budget, and are gearing up for an election by the looks of things, is the way in which poliktitions report the 'savings' they will make to 'burocracy', or whatever it is they say they can make savings from: a figure quoted as a 'news byte', is a nice large ball part figure, but hopefully the vast majority of the population (wishful thinking unfortunatley), realises how these figures are reported: E.G., a saving of ten million a year would be reported to give a nice sound byte, as 'thirty million pounds savings', which isn't a lie, they just fail to say that this is a ten million saving a year, for a three year duration etc.
Polititions are on the whole very reluctant to lie, because of its consequences, but they are the xperts of stretching the truth.
A lot of the problem, again harking on about politics and poliitions, is that we (the public) rarely get very good information from them; its all sound bytes etc, and we rarely get to see the rports or information from which they are making desicions: the prime example from plitics being Mr Blairs desicion to go to war, we cannot* say he was lieing, as it is his judgement* that took us to the war IN Iraq; we can of course question his judgement, which in this case was obviously totally wrong, as no WMDs were found etc. But without having access to the information on which he made his desicions, we can't say how apauling or otherwise the desision he took was in face of the infomration he had to make it on....

We're being lied to less than we're being told stupid things by people who don't understand the basics of what they're talking about.

This represents my entire exam technique.

2legs and Bouncy speak nothing but the truth!

I agree that *stretching the truth* and *not understanding the basics* are the basis of the vast majority of what we might call lies. *We live in a democracy* is true and not true. It isn't a true representative democracy but it is the modern interpretation of one, or at least the closest we may come at this point. *There are UFOs* is unproveable at this point so may be taken as truth or a lie. It's a theory and therefore not yet proven, just like the dozens of other theories that some like to call lies. The theory of evolution is often pointed to by religious groups as just that, a theory and therefore not proven. Odd considering that the tenents of faith are just another theory with less substantative evidence pointing toward their *proof*.

I suppose anything could be proven a lie or the truth since it entirely depends on an individuals perception. I may see and feel one thing and you another, which is the reality? I think that perhaps only a consensus of opinion after facts are revealed can be the deciding factor as to lies or truth. I guess that's how politicians lie, if they all say it's true, who are we to think otherwise?

Good answers, people!

I'd say we're being lied to, though I do agree about politicians in general. Bush is an exception, as it has been often proven that he has lied on numrous occasions (WMDs, SUVs, the Iraw situation, etc).

Hollywood is perhaps one of the greatest liars ever. In almost any 'historical' movie, facts are changed to make the Americans look better. For example, Pearl Harbour made it look like a great victory for America, despite the Jaanese actually being the overall winners.

Similarly, movies and TV put forward the myth that all the 'real' people, which we view through artificial eyes called 'television screens,' are beautiful, glamorous, and rich, and if you are not like them, you are somehow inferior. Beauty in this case means not how attractive one is, but how closely they resemble a particular ideal promulgated by the entertainment industry, one that is all but unachievable except with a lot of makeup and surgery, plus maybe a bit of anorexia.

Then of course there are a whole bunch of scared Americans who insist on drugging their children if they show the slightest deviation from perfect obedience. Kid talks in class, they get Ritalin. Kid answers out of turn, they are given Prozac. Rather than let kids be kids, the pharmaceutical industry puts forward the myth that any inconvenience can be quickly and safely eradicated by a pill with no side effects. Those pills' links to depression and suicide are seriously downplayed.

Speaking of which, one of the Columbine shooters is known to have been on Ritalin. There is also a whole conspiracy about Columbine whose existence is easy to verify, but what really happened and why it is being covered up are very, very difficult to find out. This is an example of when we are most definitely being lied to.

That, and all the people who insist that marijuana is bad for you, despite the fact that it is not.

The pushing of Prozac and SSRIs in general, is a very worrying category of commercial doubtfulness.

Yes and no.

What we have in general terms are: things that cannot *really* be proven either way (e.g. the possibility that there were WMDs in Iraq), things that are well-intentioned but frankly b*ll*cks (e.g. cannabis makes people commit crime), things that are nothing more than a case of 'X is the new Y' and will be swept under the carpet when something shinier comes along (e.g. genetics can provide an answer to everything!), things which are said by politicians and things which if proven either way will end life as we know it (e.g. the existence of God).

This is simply my opinion. It does not make me stupid or badly informed it is just how I interpret the world around me (seems like a silly point to make but I'm just making sure I don't get judged on the strength of a single paragraph as has happened to me in the past on this site).

Okay, ignore that disclaimer thing. Just being over cautious... I get like that sometimes.

Politicians spin, which is another word for lie.

Here in the US, the "new media" has taken lying to a whole new level, one not seen here since a Hearst newspaper story started an international war (Spanish-American).

Yes.

About a variety of things by a variety of things.

The current moral panic with aslyum seekers is grossly overly exposed in the media...

That could have been better phrased!

I meant a variety of things, by a variety of people...

Yes.



YES

I don't want to get too far off topic but one thing about Prozac and related serotonin inhibiter related drugs, they do have their place. I would agree that pushing them for profit motive is a lie unto itself but they do have a place in the treatment of some problems.

Perhaps Al Franken said it best just with his title *Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them*. I can't comment on the content of the book since I've only heard reviews and not read it but the title is perhaps one of the best I've ever seen.

Franken's book is outstanding. One of his most disturbing revelations is the process by which the rabid conservative media manages to get its lies into the mainstream media, through dogged repetition. Once it hits mainstream, people are more inclined to believe it.

For example, "the mainstream media has a liberal bias." People who are smart enough to avoid Fox News and Rush Limbaugh have heard this and take it as axiomatic. Also, it's untrue.

I saw another example of this just yesterday in my local, nonpartisan newspaper. It was a Knight-Ridder wire service piece on a particular government activity which cited only sources at Fox News. In other words, it wasn't news. It was propaganda. People don't expect to find that sort of thing there, which makes them more susceptible.