Did you ever stop to think about how we use words? What are they, really? Words are nothing more than labels for objects and actions; yet we treat them as if they are something in themselves. We imbue them with all sorts of feelings and emotions - yet words by themselves don't say that; it is what we have been conditioned about words that do.
I think that words are a kind of shorthand that we all use to descibe something that seems *Real*. The words themselves aren't real, yet we treat them as if they are.
If really is odd when you think of it. I can write something on this page, and as you read it, you constuct an idea in your mind of what you think that I said. That something can be an idea of reality or something that doesn't exist; understanding words always causes meaning to happen. Meaning is what both the writer of the words and the reader of those words make of it.
The choice of words can be used to influence how people think and behave. Differences in How something is written can influence what a reader thinks - and so can biases that the reader has. On the writing side, if I say "A person just robbed a bank of its money", versus if I say "A cybercriminal just robbed a bank of its money", which one would you think is worse? Why?
Reader bias is important too. For example, if the statements about a bank robbery in the previous paragraph were read by someone who lost money in a robbery, they are likely to treat this event much more seriously that someone who never had that happen.
The problem isn't new; it is as old as language. It seems to me that the choice of words used and what the reader has recently experienced (in reality or vicariously) can make the same information seem very different. We can get really worked up over something we read or hear, and people who seek to control others thinking and behavior know this. They seek to get us upset, angry, and frustrated because it is easy to manipulate someone who is feeling that way - the logical part of the brain shuts down and the primitive fight-or-flight part kicks in.
There is an antedote for that, and it is a simple one; whenever you start feeling like that, stop and ask yourself these questions: "Stripped of the manupilative words, what actually is this person saying? Why? How does my own bias affect what I believe about this?" Keep it up until you find the meaning, or lack of it.
Summing it all up, I find that the best thing to do when I read or hear something is to stop and think. Ask those questions above. To be in a constant state of anxiety (or euphoria, for that matter) isn't healthy for us or other people. It makes us easy prey for other people to fill us with false ideas too.
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