[lbo-talk] Re: Margolis: Why There is No WMD Outrage

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 12:23 PM -0700 6/16/03, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>I agree with whoever it was to said this a while ago, that what's 
>going on has to with cognitive dissonance and framing. People are 
>remarkably ill informed, but facts don't have independent weight 
>even for th4e better informed. They fit into frames or 
>preconceptions, or they don't fit at all. Facts that don't fit into 
>frames will simply be rejected as anomalous adat points. The basic 
>frame is the America is Good and Means Well for Others. This gets 
>hammered with with all the identification ('our forces") and 
>flagwaving and of course attacks on doubters. Oh, you don't agree? 
>Then you Hate America, and you are Not One Of Us. Against that 
>background, the abence of WMD is not evidence that we were lied to, 
>it is an anomaly that has to be explained away, if at all, in terms 
>that fit the frame. Cog Diss kicks in: It Doesn't Matter Because 
>(fill in the blank, as long as the blank attributes Goodness and 
>Virtue to the US).
>
>You don't need to attribute special ignorance or viciousness to 
>American, just the same cognitive processes that work in everyone. 
>Btw, in us too. The FBI apologized to the ACLU for illegally 
>detaining people. did I think, Oh, good, Our Officials are finally 
>coming round? No. In my frame and yours,  on which the US govt is 
>presumptively Up To No Good, the assumption was that this is 
>meaningless appeasement or the reflection of political pressure.

That makes sense, but why some go for the frame "the USG Is 
Presumptively Up to No Good," while others go for the frame "America 
Is Good and Means Well for Others"?

Finally, what can help more folks break out of the frame "America Is 
Good and Means Well for Others"?
-- 
Yoshie

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