Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
It’s been a while since I’ve shared a review, so I thought I’d start off today by sharing a review/comment that a listener recently left on Facebook. Michelle said, “WE LOVE Filter It Through a Brain Cell! We listen weekly and my 3 tween boys ask when we can listen again! I know they are absorbing the content as our “arguments” have a whole new layer of “that’s a fallacy” statements. Excellent resource!” Oh my gosh, Michelle, thank you so much for sharing this review & how your family is using & benefitting from learning how to think well! It’s so funny b/c, this is exactly what happens…when our kids learn the fallacies, they pick up on them FAST and take great delight in catching us when we commit a logical fallacy. Lol. So, thanks again, Michelle, and thanks for listening!
I’ll tell you what, almost daily, I read something that makes me even more convinced how important it is to teach our kids to think well, and just yesterday, I read an article titled ‘Logic is the New Tool of the Patriarchy’. Yep, not even kidding. It was questioning whether critical thinking promotes toxic Patriarchy in society, since logic is a masculine way of thinking. Y’all, I’m not even kidding. My brain hurts just thinking about this ridiculous argument. But this is exactly the sort of thing our kids are going to be facing in an increasing amount as they get older and start to get exposed to more messaging on the news, in social media, etc. Well, you have a window of opportunity right now to teach your student the SKILLS of good thinking, and I’ve created a resource to help you do just that. I have a membership called Crazy Thinkers where you & your student will learn the skills of good thinking AND get to practice those skills on real-life memes, headlines, ads, and articles that I curate and send you each month, along with the questions to lead you through a conversation with them. So, if you want a simple, easy way to expand on what you’re learning here in the podcast, check out Crazy Thinkers at filteritthroughabraincell.com/crazy.
Alright, let’s continue the miniseries we’re doing on propaganda tactics! We’re going to be continuing with another tactic that relies on distraction or diversion, by shifting attention away from someone or something under scrutiny. Today’s tactic is called Minimization. Minimization happens when someone makes something that they don't want to address seem insignificant and like it’s really not a big deal, in an attempt to shift the focus away from it and onto "more important" things.
Here’s an example of what this sounds like: You have a big school assignment due tomorrow, and you're worried about how much work it’s going to take. You ask your best friend, who finished it already, "Was the assignment hard?" He replies, "Oh, it was a piece of cake! I did it in 10 minutes. Come on, let’s go shoot hoops!" You believe him and go to the backyard to shoot hoops for an hour. But then, you finally start working on the assignment, and you realize that it's actually quite challenging and takes you several hours to finish. Your friend had used the tactic of minimization by making the assignment sound much easier than it really was. He downplayed the difficulty to make you less concerned about it because HE wanted to play basketball, but in reality, it was a lot of work.
Minimization can also happen around the way you’re feeling, or how you’re experiencing something. For example, let’s say you're talking to a friend about how stressed and overwhelmed you feel because of your schoolwork. You share your worries and say, "I'm really struggling with all this homework, especially with math, and it's making me feel so anxious." Your friend responds, "Oh, come on, it's not that bad. Everyone has to deal with schoolwork. You're overreacting." In this situation, your friend is minimizing your feelings. They're downplaying your stress and anxiety by suggesting that it's not a big deal and that you're overreacting. Now, is this friend purposely trying to use Propaganda on you? No. But, this response can make you feel like your emotions aren't being taken seriously, which can be hurtful and unhelpful. Minimization of feelings can feel invalidating and lonely.
The problem behind the Minimization tactic is that the person makes something seem smaller, less important, or easier than it truly is in order to influence your perception or actions. You’re being manipulated and are being caused to see things not as they really are. They’re making something that’s actually a bigger deal seem like it’s not such a big deal, and that can cause you to respond or act in a way that’s out of touch with reality.
Here’s another example of what Minimization can sound like: There's a political debate about a proposed healthcare bill. Supporters of the bill want it to pass, but critics are concerned about its cost and impact on healthcare access. During a TV interview, a supporter of the bill says, "The cost of this healthcare bill is just a drop in the bucket compared to our entire national budget. It won't affect our economy at all." Ok, you can probably already see that in this example, the supporter is using Minimization to downplay the significance of the healthcare bill's cost. By comparing it to the entire national budget, they make it sound like a small, insignificant expense. However, in reality, even a "drop in the bucket" can cost a lot of money, and the bill's financial impact could be high. This tactic is used to make the bill seem less costly and therefore more appealing to the public.
Question to ask yourself: “Are they downplaying reality to benefit themself somehow? What’s really true here?” *repeat*
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
