Apropos of yesterday's post about Brexit. Saw someone using football as the reason to leave the EU! The imagebite on Facebook stated our eligibility for the Euro competition would be in doubt, which is absolute garbage seeing as there are teams from non EU nations already in the tournament. Delving deeper you discover one Sol Campbell was actually going on about nurturing native talent in preference to European talent, but that's down to team owners and nothing to do with leaving the EU. I know both sides are desperate to get our votes, but are we so intellectually bereft that Sol Campbell and football could be the deciding factor?
Saw an advert on TV for a QEII £5 coin commemorating Mrs Queen's 90th - not sure if it was the Royal Mint that was selling them, but I guess it must be. The advert put great store on the fact the advertiser was only charging the face value of £5. At the end there was a small rider in text saying the coin would be legal tender only in Jersey. That has to be a money laundering operation!
While having a slice of toast for breakfast yesterday I pondered the the Great British Breakfast. When we eat our slice of organic, stone-ground, gluten-free wholemeal and praise ourselves for being healthy, we forget that we invariably load it with jam, a sugary confection that miraculously turns our healthy toast into what is effectively a slice of cake. I'm sure a couple of rashers of bacon and an egg or two, possibly with some fried tomatoes or mushrooms is infinitely more healthy than our slice of toast laden with sugar.
On another matter; the problem with communication today is that because we've lost the ability to focus and analyse, everything has to be reduced to a soundbite (or imagebite), meaning even the most facile arguments can, at first glance, pass muster for those unable or not willing to dig a bit deeper. Saw a prime example of this yesterday on Facebook - someone had posted an image with a headline saying a 50 year old bloke had cured his inoperable lung cancer with cannabis oil. It's only on delving deeper and read the small-print that you find he'd also been having chemotherapy, which is a bit of a give-away. Now cannabis oil is believed to have mild curative effects in cancer patients, but it can also make cancer worse and it's only in combination with standard treatments that it MAY have a beneficial effect. The headline didn't say that though, and that's just share-bait for the alternative therapies market and those with a vested interest in selling cannabis oil.
Saw an advert on TV for a QEII £5 coin commemorating Mrs Queen's 90th - not sure if it was the Royal Mint that was selling them, but I guess it must be. The advert put great store on the fact the advertiser was only charging the face value of £5. At the end there was a small rider in text saying the coin would be legal tender only in Jersey. That has to be a money laundering operation!
While having a slice of toast for breakfast yesterday I pondered the the Great British Breakfast. When we eat our slice of organic, stone-ground, gluten-free wholemeal and praise ourselves for being healthy, we forget that we invariably load it with jam, a sugary confection that miraculously turns our healthy toast into what is effectively a slice of cake. I'm sure a couple of rashers of bacon and an egg or two, possibly with some fried tomatoes or mushrooms is infinitely more healthy than our slice of toast laden with sugar.
On another matter; the problem with communication today is that because we've lost the ability to focus and analyse, everything has to be reduced to a soundbite (or imagebite), meaning even the most facile arguments can, at first glance, pass muster for those unable or not willing to dig a bit deeper. Saw a prime example of this yesterday on Facebook - someone had posted an image with a headline saying a 50 year old bloke had cured his inoperable lung cancer with cannabis oil. It's only on delving deeper and read the small-print that you find he'd also been having chemotherapy, which is a bit of a give-away. Now cannabis oil is believed to have mild curative effects in cancer patients, but it can also make cancer worse and it's only in combination with standard treatments that it MAY have a beneficial effect. The headline didn't say that though, and that's just share-bait for the alternative therapies market and those with a vested interest in selling cannabis oil.
4 comments:
I was thinking about these things yesterday and I wonder whether we are paying the price for the under funding of education? What is it that makes everyone take everything they read at face value?
But do they? I question your assertion....
Many of the people I've seen doing it are very well educated, so I doubt it's anything to do with that. Short attention span, or too many things competing for attention?
The scourge of progressive relativism, i.e. every opinion and idea is "equal" and deserves equal attention; a bad idea that provides oxygen for religious nutters, frauds and hucksters. Statistically, skepticism works better; question everything!
Post a Comment