Tayssir John Gabbour quoted Edward Tufte:
> Effects Without Causes, Cherry-Picking, Overreaching, Chartjunk and
> the Rage to Conclude":
>
> "Making a presentation is a moral act as well as an intellectual
> activity. The use of corrupt manipulations and blatant rhetorical
> ploys in a report or presentation -- outright lying, flagwaving,
> personal attacks, setting up phony alternatives, misdirection,
> jargon-mongering, evading key issues, feigning disinterested
> objectivity, willful misunderstanding of other points of view --
> suggests that the presenter lacks both credibility and
> evidence. To maintain standards of quality, relevance, and
> integrity for evidence, consumers of presentations should insist
> that presenters be held intellecutally and ethically responsible
> for what they show and tell. Thus /consuming/ a presentation is
> also an intellectual and moral activity."
As I've pointed out before, there is a tradition in thought about the ultimate nature of "being" and "human being" to which Marx belongs that includes a claim like this.
As appropriated and developed by Marx, it makes the the activities of creating and appropriating intellectual and aesthetic "goods" ("truth" and "beauty") the content of ideal relations of mutual recognition. This is one of the senses in which these activities and the universally developed individuals engaged in them are essentially "social". "Appropriating" is a better term than "consuming." It requires, as does "creating", developed "capabilities" ("virtues" in the sense of Aristotle). Also, "ethical" here is a wholly positive concept; it designates ideally "good" relations.
All this is elaborated, among other places, in the manuscript "Private Property and Communism" in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts. <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/ manuscripts/comm.htm>
Ted