[Neurons] 2017 Neurons #39 Critical Thinking for the Media

Mon Aug 21 02:54:38 EDT 2017

From: L. Michael Hall

2017 Neurons #39

August 17, 2017

CRITICAL THINKING

FOR THE MEDIA

The media everywhere ought to be trained in critical thinking.  That's my
view.  Why?  Because there is so much that is the opposite of critical
thinking in almost every broadcast of the news.  In fact, every listener to
the news and every receiver of the media ought also to be trained in
critical thinking as well.  Why?  Because it is dangerous to one's mental
and emotional health to do otherwise.  You and I and every member of the
media ought to be trained in critical thinking for our own basic sanity and
well-being.  That will reduce the likelihood of "fake news"- deceptions,
dis-information, lies, propaganda, etc.

What is the opposite of critical thinking?  What would you call it?  Shall
we call it "sloppy thinking," "imprecise thinking," "lazy thinking," "biased
thinking," "cognitive distortion thinking?"  An argument can be made, and
has been made, by writers and thinkers in the field of critical thinking,
for each of those.  Whatever the term we use, it refers to a highly unuseful
and ineffective way of thinking.

Now, to more fully understand what is the opposite, it is useful to
recognize what critical thinking means.  Generally, the term refers to- 

1.                Thinking clearly, precisely, and without prejudice.

2.                "Disciplined thinking that's clear, rational, open-minded,
and informed by evidence."

3.                Real thinking that relies on thinking through the facts,
evidence, ways of reasoning with an awareness of the cognitive biases,
fallacies, and distortions. 

Now here's a plug for basic NLP- the NLP Meta-Model of Language is a
tremendous tool for critical thinking.  Did you know that?  It is.  The 21
distinctions of the expanded Meta-Model gives you 21 linguistic distinctions
to look for and discern so that you can then ask critical thinking
questions.  Did you know that?  You didn't?  Great, then you're in for a
delightful surprise when you go back and re-study the Meta-Model!

Study the original Meta-Model by reading The Structure of Magic (1975).

              Study the expanded Meta-Model by reading Communication Magic
(2001).

What will you find in the Meta-Model that will enhance your ability to think
clearly and precisely?  You will discover key problems (called "ill-formed
structures" or ill-formedness) to accurate thinking.  You will discover some
of the inherent problems in language that you need to be aware of so that
you can avoid doing it yourself and know how to respond to those linguistic-
semantic problems when others use it on you.  What the Meta-Model offers is
a set of questions and with them you can get to the underlying experience
that the language is attempting to describe.  If they'll engage, it will
help them to communicate more clearly.

The point?  Language is not innocent.  Language itself is loaded with all
sorts of problems.  As a set of linguistic maps, language mis-maps the
territory of reality and thereby mis-directs our understandings and
responses.  If you don't know that- you will be an unconscious victim of
those distorted maps and may be a victim of the person who use those
crooked, unsane, and biased linguistic forms.  After all, the language that
you use creates and defines much of the "reality" that you live within. 

Given all that, those involved in "the media" today seem to be almost
completely clueless as to what they are doing and the confusion,
mis-information, distortions, and problems that they are creating.  I say
"seem" clueless rather than make the judgment that they know what they are
doing and are intentionally deceiving us.  I don't know that and I hope that
is not the case.  What I do know is that they constantly violate the
structure of well-formed sentences in their reports.  If I make that
judgment, I would be making a linguistic distortion and ill-formed structure
called "mind-reading."  I would be assuming that I know their mind and
"reading" their mind by announcing their intentions.  That's one example of
linguistic distortions and biases.

Once upon a time journalists learned the distinction between description and
evaluation.  But no longer.  In almost every news report that I read or
hear- the speakers are making no clear distinction between these.  They
through in evaluations constantly and do not seem to even know what they are
doing.  Some seem to be clueless about the difference. 

What is that difference?  Descriptive language uses empirical language of
things that you can see, hear, sense, smell, etc.  Evaluative language
involves a person's interpretation about what the description means to them.
Watch for it whenever there is a word or phrase that you cannot see or hear.
When this happens- "the media" is no longer reporting the facts, they are
propagandizing with their opinions and interpretations.  They are "spinning"
the news so that they can support their political point of view.

Because this is everywhere- on TV broadcasts, cable news, newspapers, social
media, internet, etc. what can we do about this?  We can begin by learning
and using the Meta-Model in our own language use.  This means learning to
distinguish the linguistic distinctions that indicate an ill-formed
structure and asking the Meta-Model question that cleans up that distortion,
deletion, or over-generalization.

We can also call attention to the un-critical thinking that we see and hear
in the media so that others begin to learn to distinguish true facts from
the imposed conclusions that people put on those facts. 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

               Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

               Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net

    ISNS new logo

What is Neuro-Semantic NLP?

Neurons:  Get your free subscription to the weekly International \Post on
Neuro-Semantics by Dr. L. Michael Hall. Subscribe at:
wwww.neurosemantics.com

    Coaching: For world-class Coach Training - The Meta-Coaching System,
<http://www.neurosemantics.com/metacoaching>
www.neurosemantics.com/metacoaching   Meta-Coach Reflections sent every
Wednesday to the group of Licensed Meta-Coaches.
<http://www.metacoachfoundation.org> www.metacoachfoundation.org  

Self-Actualization: Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential
Movement in 2007, for information about this, see
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org  

NSP --- Neuro-Semantic Publications: Order books from Neuro-Semantic
website,  <http://www.neurosemantics.com/> www.neurosemantics.com  click on
Products and Services and then the Catalogue of books.  Order via paypal.  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20170821/6aee507f/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 10627 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20170821/6aee507f/attachment-0001.jpg>