Les Misinformed
It never ceases to amaze me how little people actually need to know to feel their competent and knowledgable enough to speak authoritatively about it. Instead of using language that actually would admit that they really don't have a clue, people insist on using declaratives like they're the world-renowned Harvard professor who's been researching for 20 years. Anyway, that's only partially the subject of my blog.
The real subject of the blog is misinformation in general. Why? Because, it's not wholly the fault of people for acting like they know what they're talking about if they've actually made an attempt to learn the deal, only to have been misinformed in the first place. Yes, it is their fault for not being more skeptical of their sources and all that, but the real blame belongs on the sources themselves. Yes, I'm actually talking about The Inquirer and the Globe magazines. For some reason, the people I work with actually subscribe to these magazines and bring them into work. Headline for the day: "Camilla cheats on Charles". Are you kidding me? He's been banging her for twenty years (and Di was much better looking, so I can't figure out why), he's old, wrinkled, and frigid in that austere British sort of way that just screams "I'd never do you in a million years, especially cuz I'm filthy rich, you bloody wanker". And now that he's married to her after all the controversy, he's gonna cheat? Uh huh. And he's found a way to blind all those idiot paparozzi that would follow him into the bathroom and pay him for a photo-op of him straining on the can. No way. And the best part was, these women read it and actually believed every word!
They also claimed some woman in Florida had some horrible disease called Munchausen syndrome (a legit psychopathology) so she injected human feces into her children to make them sick so she'd look like a good parent. Right. My BS-meter's going off here. Why, cuz it was in the same magazine as the Charles and Camilla article for one. And for another reason, mentioning a real disease doesn't mean that the story behind it is real. DNA is real, but Jurassic Park isn't. If this report were true, we'd have heard about it on CNN. Lord knows those vultures they employ as reporters would be circling that women like flies on a horse's butt. They wouldn't miss a story as juicy as that if it were real! There'd be a high profile trial to cover, hearings, statements, doctors and relatives and social workers all just waiting to be interviewed. Perhaps this story was made up and not really that juicy of a story. I had people believing it.
There's a real case about a doctor in Florida who cut off the wrong leg of a patient too. That's legit, and there's a legitimate lawsuit against the doctor for doing so. So, where's the scandal in this story you ask? It's in what you're not being told of course. What they tell you is that the man was brought into surgery, passed all of the preoperative checks, and the doctor operated on (read: amputated) the wrong leg. Sounds awful! What they don't tell you is that the patient was diabetic, both legs were diseased and necrotic and the patient was scheduled to have the one that was removed the following day anyway. Is it an excuse? Hell yes it is! The leg was pathologic and fit the criteria for surgery. The patient consented to having the leg removed, and the only difference was that they changed the order! Frivolous lawsuit anyone? I think so, but we'll have to see what the lawyers think.
What's the point of all this? We are barraged with information all day, every day. We hear and understand and interpret the events of our world based on the knowledge that we have, and all too often, that knowledge on an issue is incomplete. People fail to think beyond that which is told to them and demand that holes be filled. Why? Because we're trained to CNN-style news briefings, where we get all the information (and none of it at the same time, if you think about it) in a 15 second soundbyte from an attractive news anchor. We're trained to think for some reason that we can trust the person behind the desk to give us the real story, and not some mumbled version of it. And that, ladies and gentlemen is a discussion for another time.
I hope you've enjoyed my rant for the night. Good night =)
The real subject of the blog is misinformation in general. Why? Because, it's not wholly the fault of people for acting like they know what they're talking about if they've actually made an attempt to learn the deal, only to have been misinformed in the first place. Yes, it is their fault for not being more skeptical of their sources and all that, but the real blame belongs on the sources themselves. Yes, I'm actually talking about The Inquirer and the Globe magazines. For some reason, the people I work with actually subscribe to these magazines and bring them into work. Headline for the day: "Camilla cheats on Charles". Are you kidding me? He's been banging her for twenty years (and Di was much better looking, so I can't figure out why), he's old, wrinkled, and frigid in that austere British sort of way that just screams "I'd never do you in a million years, especially cuz I'm filthy rich, you bloody wanker". And now that he's married to her after all the controversy, he's gonna cheat? Uh huh. And he's found a way to blind all those idiot paparozzi that would follow him into the bathroom and pay him for a photo-op of him straining on the can. No way. And the best part was, these women read it and actually believed every word!
They also claimed some woman in Florida had some horrible disease called Munchausen syndrome (a legit psychopathology) so she injected human feces into her children to make them sick so she'd look like a good parent. Right. My BS-meter's going off here. Why, cuz it was in the same magazine as the Charles and Camilla article for one. And for another reason, mentioning a real disease doesn't mean that the story behind it is real. DNA is real, but Jurassic Park isn't. If this report were true, we'd have heard about it on CNN. Lord knows those vultures they employ as reporters would be circling that women like flies on a horse's butt. They wouldn't miss a story as juicy as that if it were real! There'd be a high profile trial to cover, hearings, statements, doctors and relatives and social workers all just waiting to be interviewed. Perhaps this story was made up and not really that juicy of a story. I had people believing it.
There's a real case about a doctor in Florida who cut off the wrong leg of a patient too. That's legit, and there's a legitimate lawsuit against the doctor for doing so. So, where's the scandal in this story you ask? It's in what you're not being told of course. What they tell you is that the man was brought into surgery, passed all of the preoperative checks, and the doctor operated on (read: amputated) the wrong leg. Sounds awful! What they don't tell you is that the patient was diabetic, both legs were diseased and necrotic and the patient was scheduled to have the one that was removed the following day anyway. Is it an excuse? Hell yes it is! The leg was pathologic and fit the criteria for surgery. The patient consented to having the leg removed, and the only difference was that they changed the order! Frivolous lawsuit anyone? I think so, but we'll have to see what the lawyers think.
What's the point of all this? We are barraged with information all day, every day. We hear and understand and interpret the events of our world based on the knowledge that we have, and all too often, that knowledge on an issue is incomplete. People fail to think beyond that which is told to them and demand that holes be filled. Why? Because we're trained to CNN-style news briefings, where we get all the information (and none of it at the same time, if you think about it) in a 15 second soundbyte from an attractive news anchor. We're trained to think for some reason that we can trust the person behind the desk to give us the real story, and not some mumbled version of it. And that, ladies and gentlemen is a discussion for another time.
I hope you've enjoyed my rant for the night. Good night =)
