Bias... meaning Opinion

The word bias can convey a few things, but in this paragraph it means opinion. This is the casual use of the word. This bias comes from a personal preference and it involves more a feeling than a thought. A woman pauses her screaming and turns to her neighbor: "God, my kid is a great soccer player, don't you think?" The other soccer mom says: "No you're biased! What are you thinking? My kid is obviously better." Neither are thinking, they're feeling. A newspaper might have biased opinions on it's Editorial page. These are a bit more thought out. This is because all the writers went out one night and realized the boss was a leftist (rightist) and each one searched their hearts for all the reasons that the boss's opinions were actually God's truth. They agreed it would be best for the morale of the team if they were all leftists (rightists). The ones that didn't really want to go along left. They (were) disappeared. The others were right. That was that. The next day they began to writing editorial content, each outdoing the other in attempts to express their (newly held or deepened) beliefs in the Opinion Section. This used to be called the "OpEd" page. OpEd is a mashup of "Opinion" and "Editorial." The rest of a given newspaper (New York Times) is supposed to present news without any bias, neither left nor right. Some papers lean left (The New York Times) and some lean right (New York Post). Some media (papers, cable shows, authors, speakers) lean a lot. The more a media outlet leans (New York Post), the greater the effort required to filter facts out of it. In general, if the lean is too great (New York Post), the publication isn't taken very seriously by people who just want news. Whoops! My bias is showing. The denial of saying what I clearly said in the last sentence is an example of disingenuous rhetoric. Propaganda goes beyond a "bald faced" statement of opinion as a fact. It's much more subtle and designed to influence a reader/viewer to "move" them towards adopting a point of view - without telling them they are being moved. "bring them around," agree to an idea or take a certain action. This is a real bummer. One can find True Believers on the left and the right. True Believers (who will never move) of the right or left swear by their favorite publications and wouldn't dream of reading anything else. It leans over so much it falls into a crater, a pit prepared for the sneering, argumentative and closed minded... there go the true believers. The pit is labeled neither "right" nor "left." It is labeled, "fool." Or was it "tool." I've been there so many times I really should remember.

Even the two well dressed people who want you to convert to their religion are up front about it. They show up at your door and smile, "You should join our cult! because here's a pamphlet. It's earth shaking in it's bold, unique revelation of the obvious truth that has been carefully hidden by the evil others. As any person of depth and common sense can clearly see... the pamphlet explains it all. Read it, it's free! You'll be so happy you converted when the end of the world comes around. By the way, that's in three years, four months, six days, and (...what time is it Bob?) three and a half hours from now."

Pretty impressive pamphlet, right? More about conspiracy theories and disingenuous communication later. The pamphlet is available to those who slog through the rest of the site... demonstrating their worthiness.

Editorial comments contain opinion. Sometimes some people think it's important to make a distinction between words (spoken or written) that describe reality (present facts) and words that are meant to express opinion (speculation). Usually opinion is recognized as personal. Some people don't think it's important to make a distinction between opinions and facts at all. It seems like some people are not aware there IS any difference between fact and opinion. Maybe they don't think about it. Where do facts come from? More about the scientific method later. For now... here's a pamphlet.

Most of the words above are not opinion with the exception of the last few statements that use words like seems and maybe. These alert the reader that what follows is a speculation. Like a scientific hypotheses (something that must be tested) speculation indicates there is some doubt about it. It might be inviting the reader to think about it for a moment. It is meant to be cooperative and productive. This is what responsible, honest people do when they want to qualify a statement made within an otherwise factual conversation. Sometimes, dishonest, irresponsible people use seems, maybe and sometimes to be antagonistic and destructive but hide it... keep some plausible deniability. Maybe you don't understand. More on the slippery nature of words later.

"If you don't believe everything I say, maybe you're stupid." That's a cheap way to insult someone, or make yourself appear superior. With or without the maybe, speakers who are very serious about persuading their audience - are well aware that insults can get them a long way. It's a commonly used rhetorical device. Persuasion isn't necessarily "bad." It depends on intent, awareness... disclosure. Feel free to persuade me otherwise - I'm open. More about rhetoric later.

"Maybe" might be an unusually interesting word. It can be used for a lot of purposes. (Seems and sometimes too.) Maybe you felt insulted when I used the word "stupid" back there and got kind of distracted while you read the next sentence. I'm sorry if that's the case. Did I want you to be distracted or emotional? Anyone might use "maybe" in humorous way. Maybe I've talked about maybe too much. What I'm hoping to show is that words can be used in many ways and, because of that, communication can get ambiguous. Sometimes you're just not sure what to think. People can take advantage of this. More about manipulation later.

Sometimes you can hear (or feel!) you have entered The Opinion Zone. Bias is the inclination to have a certain perspective on things. Sometimes we're not aware of bias in ourselves or in others. It's not conscious. Sometimes it's important to try very hard to recognize bias. Like in this writing - the focus will eventually come to - how can you tell honest, responsible people from dishonest, irresponsible people. Sometimes it's not very obvious. Actually it's impossible. There's no such thing as an irresponsible (or responsible) - honest (or dishonest) person. People act in certain ways over and over again so we make up words to describe different kinds of repetitive behavior. People might act in honest or dishonest ways at any given time. They may, or may not, be "responsible" for their behavior. It gets complicated. In any case, we tend to put big labels on big buckets and then push people into them. Having unexamined bias might... interfere with choosing the appropriate bucket for your target person. That's why there is a lot about bias, logical fallacy, and rhetoric on a site dedicated to privacy. I need some space to think, figure out what I want. Feed my autonomy.

But, I recognize my bias. So don't mess with my opinions about democracy, judgement, or love. I'll be happy to push you into the "WRONG" bucket. No I wont. But I will explain my positions and respect yours. Best I am able. I might even come around to seeing, or actually adopting your position. If you play fair.

In stark contrast, fallen media outlets - the ones that think it's their job to win "hearts and minds" - are not very straightforward about it. They don't think you actually need to know about the conversion's agenda. It might be really FUN (or angering depending on your mood) to see the ways a media outlet tries to influence you without your consent (you let the end of the world people in your door). These pages, you are reading, have a lot to say about persuasion techniques and I hope to get around to exploring some cool tricks I've heard about a few times and likely fallen for often. Many of those tricks rely on another kind of bias. Not bias as in an opinion. A more formal, scientific use of the word. These "cognitive bias" are a set of mental shortcuts (heuristics) that we all share, no opinion about it. I think they a fun to learn about - but I don't mind laughing at myself. Usually.

So, rhetoric. There's nothing wrong about it. Sometimes people say, "Stop with the rhetoric" or "that's just rhetorical," as if rhetoric is cheap or dishonest. Rhetorical techniques (sometimes called literary devices) are just time proven ways to speak in a way that holds the listeners attention, or helps to make a point. Repeating yourself, "more about rhetoric later," is an example of a rhetorical device. More about rhetoric later.

So... bias, fallacy, and rhetoric and how get influenced

Sounds fun, huh? It is. But don't get all emotional about it.
We're going to ease into it by looking at something we started off with
the mac-daddy of all buckets

LEFT RIGHT