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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
 Posted - 11/05/2007 : 09:11:26
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Probably most of the people on SFN are savvy enough to see through this crap already, but a reminder never hurts!
In this article we examine two examples of what we call "fact-free" advertising, which we see in abundance. These ads seek to associate the candidate with a string of positive words and images but are void of specifics. Voters should beware.
We have chosen an example from Republican Mitt Romney that is full of words such as “families,” “values,” “patriotic,” “strength” and “innovation.” Who could be against any of those? Romney is also squarely against “waste in the federal government,” but who isn't? And what does he consider "waste?" He doesn't say.
Our example from Democratic candidate John Edwards also pushes the "strength" and "patriotism" buttons, showing that vacuous words are a bipartisan tactic. Edwards also speaks loftily of making America "the country of the 21st century," whatever that means. He says he'd "lift families out of poverty" and "strengthen the middle class" but doesn't say how, or define what he means by "middle class." He says, "We know what needs to be done," but doesn't say what that is. |
http://www.factcheck.org/99_fact-free.html
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"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 10:08:26 [Permalink]
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| I dont really see what the problem is, unless they avoid actual details throughout their entire campaign. Sometimes politicians have to connect to people and getting into the nitty gritty of policies etc is not always the best way to do this. |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 10:11:19 [Permalink]
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| Marf, I think this ties directly into your post about Spinoza here. |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 11:33:24 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by On fire for Christ
I dont really see what the problem is, unless they avoid actual details throughout their entire campaign. Sometimes politicians have to connect to people and getting into the nitty gritty of policies etc is not always the best way to do this.
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I think this kind of BS is a big deal. Those kinds of statements are only valid in summarizing more detailed statements that mention actual facts and positions. Without those, they are only so many Orwellian phrases, meant to touch knee-jerk nerves while bypassing the brain. Critically thinking political "consumers" should reject the messenger who has no message but propagandistic platitudes.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 11:37:59 [Permalink]
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| Amen to that Brother! |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 11:57:41 [Permalink]
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| BPS wrote: LOL! I was going to respond with the same thing! |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 12:06:18 [Permalink]
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Glory, hallelujah!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 16:23:56 [Permalink]
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| How to spot empty rhetoric in political ads |
Ummm... by turning on your TV and watching one?
I don't recall having ever seen a political ad that wasn't empty of actual content.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Orwellingly Yurz
SFN Regular
USA
529 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2007 : 21:03:56 [Permalink]
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YO: Marfknox is one of my fave contributors to this site, but I need to put in my 2 cents regarding her first post in this thread, wherein she puts forward an admirally balanced critic about the Orwellianese of political ad copy, equally faulting Romney and Edwards.
I take a rather pragmatic approach for whom I'm going to vote. I do this knowing that each or all sides provide us with more than enough bullshit in their rhetoric. The definition of the word 'campaign' is 'a series of staged events.' Quite accurate.
So, what I do is figure out what choice on the ballot will provide the most security and comfort to the MOST US citizens. That's why I usually always vote for Democrats, although many of them today are in dire need of a pair, Dianne Feinstein, notwithstanding.
John Edwards is so much totally a better candidate than Mitt Romney
could ever be. And, like Romney, John Edwards is also very rich.
Orwellian Yurz |
"The modern conservative...is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
If dogs run free
Then what must be,
Must be...
And that is all
--Bob Dylan
The neo-cons have gotten welfare for themselves down to a fine art.
--me
"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights."
--J. Paul Getty
"The great thing about Art isn't what it give us, but what we become through it."
--Oscar Wilde
"We have Art in order not to die of life."
--Albert Camus
"I cling like a miser to the freedom I lose when surrounded by an abundance of things."
--Albert Camus
"Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2007 : 05:26:34 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dude
| How to spot empty rhetoric in political ads |
Ummm... by turning on your TV and watching one?
I don't recall having ever seen a political ad that wasn't empty of actual content.
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Ditto. I ignore them all and get the information I need from independant sources, easy enough in this age of the computer.
Actually, much of that info can be observed in the activities and actions of the various candidates in their day-to-day activities, and by the indictments of their associates. I dunno what Rudy's gonna do about Keirk, if I've spelled that right.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2007 : 06:02:57 [Permalink]
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OY wrote: John Edwards is so much totally a better candidate than Mitt Romney
could ever be. |
I'm not going to argue with that! Personally, I wish Edwards was doing better in the primary race. Maybe he'll have a second wind, but I doubt it. Sadly, he seems to have lost momentum. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2007 : 07:41:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by On fire for Christ
I dont really see what the problem is, unless they avoid actual details throughout their entire campaign. Sometimes politicians have to connect to people and getting into the nitty gritty of policies etc is not always the best way to do this. |
I'll sort of defend this sentiment inasmuch as it has to be hard to get across a complex solution to an even more complex problem in 15 or 30 seconds. A mind-numbing ad detailing exactly how a person is going to fix the tax code (or whatever) would be a turn-off, I think.
Of course, with this in mind, why do ads at all?? I guess for me, I'd like an ad like Edwards' saying "I'm going to do X or Y", and then direct people to a webpage where I can go into more details.
This would require that Edwards actually have a detailed plan-- he may, or he may not. But it would work for me, if he did such a thing. |
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How to spot empty rhetoric in political ads
