Thinking Critically

The older I get the more difficult it becomes to separate emotion from logic when making an argument. I find my increasing experiences and biases towards aspects of religion and politics and even science have made it more and more difficult to look at the world objectively. This is particularly acute when I get upset about political arguments made by those who lean right, be they on Twitter, on radio or TV. I’d like to think of myself as an open-minded person who takes in as many of the available facts before making a judgement on a particular subject, but that’s not always the case.

So when I came across this excellent series of videos by TechNYou dealing with critical thinking, I absorbed the presented information like a sponge. If you need a refresher on how to make an argument logically or how to recognize confirmation bias in your day to day life, I highly recommend them. Each part is very short so you can watch the entire series in no time. Enjoy and remember to ‘Think Critically’.

Part 2 – Broken Logic
Part 3 – The Man Who Was Made of Straw
Part 4 – Getting Personal
Part 5 – The Gambler’s Fallacy
Part 6 – A Precautionary Tale

Fox News’ War on the White House

When the White House first pushed back against Fox News, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea but now I am. Media Matters put together what Fox has been up to since the day Obama was elected, month by month. I’d love it for someone to go through and try and make a montage like this of Fox’s positive stories about the administration. It’d probably last all of 30 seconds.

I don’t know what disgusts me more, the fact that Fox pushes its extreme-right opinion 24 hours a day or that most of my family enjoys having lies and propaganda spoon fed to them on a daily basis. This is one time when turning the other cheek just isn’t an option.