Sunday, April 14, 2019

21st Century is the Age of Intellectual Dishonesty

Staff Writer, DL Mullan
Education / Society
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People want to hear the lie. The lie that makes their existence validated and meaningful. Lies have gone from the social nicety to save someone from embarrassment to the social, political, and psychological corruption of the entire world. 

This essay is not about religion. That is another lie we tell ourselves. If we are good, do good, and then we can go to heaven. If we don't have a god or dogmatic tomes, then humans cannot be moral, ethical people. That is a conservative group think misstatement.

Liberals are no better. Virtue signaling has taken the place of prayerful piety. If you do not support this or that, then you cannot be socially accepted. If you will not allow certain ideologies to become political dogma, then you are a bigot!

What we have not asked ourselves is: are we being intellectually honest? 

The 21st Century has turned into a mudslinging free-for-all. We have 12 years to live as a species because of Climate Change! The President is a Russian Agent and 17 Intelligence Agencies agree! The only way to save our culture is to put GOD back in the classroom! The Polar Ice Caps are going to melt and we'll never see snow again if we don't get rid of cars! Anyone who doesn't believe in GOD is an evil devil worshiper! Osama bin Laden masterminded 9/11.

The list of dishonest remarks is endless.  

Right, left. Liberal, conservative. Aren't all of you being intellectually dishonest? 

The fervor is so intense that if you state a researched opinion you are open for disparaging commentary about your moral fiber and personage. For example, people with MAGA hats are assaulted wherever they go based on a Mainstream Media narrative. The person is never asked what s/he believes. The apparel causes instantaneous violence on the excuse the person is a "Nazi," "White Nationalist," or "White Supremacist," even if that person wearing said item is black. 

The social constructs of our society that determine moral fiber and ethical behavior are being lost for the instant gratification of an emotional outburst. A crumb to feed someone's ego. A profit made by pundits and political parties.

In America, if you disagree, then disagree that is your right. It is not your right to physically harm another person. It is not your right to defame someone's character because you disagree with their point of view. It is not your right to "dox" someone and make them a target. 

These scenarios have played out in American society, but that is not our inherent cultural norms and mores. So where are people getting the idea that having a temper tantrum is a legitimate form of discourse and debate? 

In high school our class had a debate session for history, no one threw a chair, yelled expletives, or cried needing a hug. So where is this intellectual dishonesty stemming from? Common Core? Colleges and University curriculum? Protest groups? Political parties?  Media bias?

No, this aberrant behavior was going on before President Trump took office. We had protesters during the Obama Administration lighting cars on fire and jumping up and down on other vehicles. We had groups of people stop traffic on freeways.

Do we lay the blame squarely on our educational system? Or do we confront the ideology head on? 

The laws in our Constitutional Republic are based on the rights and responsibilities of the individual against that of mob rule (democracy). The good of the one outweighs the good of the many. So our laws are not skewed toward the more socialistic arenas of our society, but are not also abusive toward others in reciprocation.

In addition, those laws are based on two distinct factors: the spirit and the letter of that law. So we could have a very stern law, but the circumstance for which it was written (spirit) lessens its intensity. Thus the spirit and letter of the law creates a liberal/conservative composition. Our laws are right and left brained simultaneously.  These sides are equal in measure. Equal in weight. Equal in application. 

Our liberal media wants to bias all context of law and etiquette toward only the emotional responses. Talk radio wants to prejudice their audience to only facts and figures. Both sides are right and both sides are wrong. Just like when someone omits information, data points, social parameters will always be incorrect.

It's called: intellectual dishonesty. 

The scientific theory of make a statement, test that statement, and come to a conclusion based on the outcomes is a good way to determine if a piece is being intellectually honest. As readers, the audience, and as voters, Americans have to weigh the pros and cons of every detail presented to them. 

But we have gatekeepers in media, technology platforms who skew data, bias algorithms, and omit details in order to further an agenda. That is intellectual dishonesty. 

How can we root out intellectually dishonest gatekeepers? We put our belief systems to the test because if we do not have all the facts, figures, and spirit of the discussion then are we not being intellectually dishonest with ourselves? If we are dishonest by choice or circumstance, then how do we ever hope to have an honest conversation about anything?

A few criticisms that has come this editor's way... let's test them. 

VDPG doesn't believe a woman can become a NavySeaL
  • Test: If you are a woman making this accusation: drop everything, enlist in the military, and become a candidate for the NavySeals. The qualifications have to be met as you would if you were a man. There cannot be any changing of the strength requirements, ability and skills sets, mental acuity, or any kind of watering down of the regulations. 
  • Outcome: Did you pass as a woman in equal mental and physical measure to your male counterpart? Yes or No?
VDPG is transphobic.
  • Test: Has the VDPG ever stopped a Transgender person from being Transgender? 
  • Outcome: No. 
  • Test: Has the VDPG stopped a man wearing woman's clothing? 
  • Outcome: No. Actually the VDPG has written about clothing history. Men used to wear the pumps, stockings, dresses, and attire women have come to emulate these many past centuries. If anyone knows about clothing history, then men wearing makeup and sequins is nothing new. It's really old. There is no news story here. 
  • Test: Has the VDPG ever stopped a woman from wearing mens clothing? 
  • Outcome. I am wearing mens clothing right now. 
  • Test: Has the VDPG contested men in women's bathrooms with woman and underaged girls? 
  • Outcome: Yes. A resounding YES! Men in skirts or suits have no business in the bathrooms or shower rooms of women and girls. We have sexually tailored bathrooms in our culture designed for the penis and the vagina. Since the males of the species are the sexual aggressors of the females it is not prudent or wise to invade the sexual privacy or security of the other. It is not warranted. That makes this issue a rape and molestation issue and about respecting women. 
  • Test:  Does VDPG contest biological males competing against biological females in sports? 
  • Outcome: Yes! Biological males are superior in size, speed, and strength to biological females. There would be no competition in sports, males would dominate over females that is why Title 9 exists to give equity and equality to women in all scholastic and sport arenas without fear or retribution.
VDPG is against immigration.
  • Test: VDPG hates refugees. 
  • Outcome: The editor's grandmother is a refugee from Belarus circa 1912-17. The Bolsheviks stole their family farm and ran them off their land and out of their home country for the cause of socialism and antisemitism. 
  • Test: VDPG hates people of Spanish descent.
  • Outcome: The editor is from Spanish descent as a descendant of Emperor Charlemagne through the Chisum and Gyrlyngton family lines.  
  • Test: VDPG hates all forms of immigration.
  • Outcome: Legal immigration that supports the American way of life is most welcome. Illegal immigration that brings in drug/human/sex trafficking is unwelcome.  
 VDPG is anti-vaccine.
  • Test: Has the editor ever had a vaccine?
  • Outcome: Yes. All necessary vaccines for a child born in 1972. 
  • Test: Has the editor ever had a reaction to a vaccine? 
  • Outcome: Yes. The editor had the DTap, Tetanus booster, around the age of 29 on the urging of her oral surgeon before getting her wisdom teeth extracted. Her small arm had a site reaction that ballooned up to the size of a half softball. She ran a fever for a week and had to be placed on an antibiotic. Recent testing reveals the DTap has glyphosate (Roundup) and the editor has been disabled with a collapsed immune system since 2007 (i.e., other factors and other vaccine reactions are also involved in the Editor's status at an Environmental Illness patient.)
  • Test: Is the editor anti-vaccine?
  • Outcome: The editor is against poisons and toxins in the medical supply. Vaccines have changed from ProImmunity to ProToxcity.  For over thirty years, vaccines have never been tested for efficacy or safety, so until the paradigm shifts back to safety all vaccines should be discontinued. 
  • Test: Does the editor believe anti-vaxxers are the cause of the measles outbreaks? 
  • Outcome. No. With the unmitigated flood of illegal immigration, the health, cleanliness, and nutrition of immigrants are not being tested or remedied before being set loose into our society, so unvaccinated children cannot be the cause of said outbreaks. They didn't have the disease to begin with so how could they spread it?
So are you intellectually honest? Put yourself to the test before accusing the Editor of the Villa de Paz Gazette of such atrocities. 

If you read every article and essay posited here on the Villa de Paz Gazette, readers will find that VDPG challenges the intellectual dishonesty in media, business, politics, culture, and entertainment. Americans have been emotionally blackmailed to believe over here, over there, up that way, and somewhere around the corner. VDPG breaks through the programming. 

There is a spirit and letter to the boundaries of our society. The individual in this Constitutional Republic is the minority. Yet with the rights of an individual, the individual also must uphold their responsibilities to the national discourse. Americans cannot spew emotions as facts, nor can we enumerate facts and figures as the sole means to resolve our differences. 

VDPG breaks convention and returns its readers back to a time where discourse was intellectually honest. 

Are you being intellectually honest? 

VDPG began by dispelling the lies of corrupt politicians, media, and developers. The Editor has never wavered. In the spirit of the old George Washington legend: VDPG cannot tell a lie. 

If you want lies, there are plenty of resources on the internet for you to quote and cite. 

The Villa de Paz Gazette is not one of them. 

We're not pretty. We're not popular, but our thesis statements with citations and quotations will stand the test of time.