EEA: Emotional Extremist Anonymous

Admitting you have a problem (with reasoning) is the first step to recovery (seeing the world as realistically as possible). Telling us “Why We Get Spun” in chapter four, Jackson and Jamieson underscore specific traps that reveal the natural human tendencies that make it challenging for us to view the outside world without bias, wishful thinking, or emotional reasoning.

The fact that we give into emotionally biased reasoning or crave certainty is something we should not try to deny; instead we have to play off it. The insert, “This is your Brain on Politics” was a great scientific illustration showing that at times our brain does act on emotional impulse. The brain scans showed images of Kerry and Bush supporters that were confronted with critical statements of each. Each group let their favored candidate off easily while crushing the other candidate. The scan results showed that there was only increased activation on the emotional circuits, not those parts of the brain needed during reasoning. It’s disappointing isn’t it? But hey, I know all about drowning in emotion.

Admitting that I am extremely sentiment, reactive, and emotional is a total understatement. I get defensive and heated when it comes to arguing about particular topics. I like to say I’m passionate, it’s a great excuse. It happens to us all. That’s the bottom line, so what can we do about? This chapter has reminded me to be like the scientist. If I am a true advocate concerning relative issues I should research them to the furthest extent, work to disapprove them, jump on the other side and gain a fresh perspective. If we can learn to channel our “passion” or overload of emotional circuits into admitting that our natural human tendencies often get the best of us then we have nothing to be ashamed of and can hopefully jump out of those traps that spin us up.

In unSpun: Finding Facts in a world of disinformation, Jackson and Jamieson are providing their readers with a tool to recognize spin and thus the ability to dodge the spinners’ misleading agendas and false illustrations of reality. Reading the opening chapter, From Snake Oil to Emu Oil, with continuously furrowed eyebrows, I began wishing I had fallen into this book earlier. Who didn’t know that Listerine couldn’t really cure bad breath?

I will be the first to admit that I am gullible to the furthest extent and would definitely fall under those American who believed the “Dubious Campaign Claims” that George W. Bush and John Kerry had stated back a few years ago. I respected the way in which Jackson and Jamieson presented both the Democratic and Republican’s way of bending facts and created subtle ways to deceive viewers.

For myself, the most eye opening section of the chapter was the uncovering the deceit interwoven in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. The buzz around this film left only “misimpression”, questions, and anger in its viewers. Fifty-two percent of American believed that the Bush administration allowed the bin Laden family to fly out of the U.S. while airspace was still closed. Unspun presents falsehoods such as the “Bin Laden Baloney” and begins to unravel the spinners’ web of bended facts and outright lies and I am extremely appreciative of the truth that the book is uncovering. Naturally oblivious and naïve, I am learning to ask questions and not take everything I read or see as factual evidence. I am learning to get down and dirty to find reliable sources from everything to a dependable literature review to a healthy hair shampoo.