Fame (Fandom II)

07/02/23 • 55 min

Episode 52 - Fame (Fandom II)
Does fame give society the right to the famous?
Peter Hotez is harassed at his home.
Eminem is followed to the bathroom for an autograph when he's having dinner with his family. From a song, The Way I Am. This particular song seems to really hit the nail on the head for this topic. Eminem basically says "I appreciate the support from the fans but there are times when I don't want to be a celebrity and I don't owe my fans anything other than music."
Artists are often seen as wanting fame or wanting to be famous. This is certainly true for some of them but this isn't easy to be certain of. Commercial art is now part of an industrial promotion machine that they are very likely unable to avoid if they want their music to be heard. And even if they *wanted* to be famous, would that mean that we have the right to bother them during moments when they aren't actively producing their art?
If we say that artists deserve a private life does that make us hypocrites if we want to judge them for immoral things they do in their personal lives? What about politicians and scientists who aren't 100% wholesome? Are there any logical inconsistencies when we look at this?
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hotez
Eminem - The Way I Am (with lyrics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmG0ZsUAag
Rush - Limelight (with lyric)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63eixpYRWk
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/q-and-a/a60015/paparazzo-explains-staged-celebrity-photos/

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Juxtaposition and Media Distortion

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Juxtaposition is the placement of two ideas in very close proximity so as to imply a direct connection between them. At no point is it required that they be actually connected in meaning. Any conclusion that is false falls squarely on the audience and gives the person doing the juxtaposition an automatic out (I didn't *explicitly say* that).
Some examples
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvia_Grossman
https://thecjn.ca/news/international/activists-distribute-thousands-of-fake-anti-israel-new-york-times-papers/
Internet memes are usually a very good example of this form of expression. More and more, people think that memes are actual logical arguments for or against something when usually they are just indications of which biases they hold.
Music is often used for juxtapositional purposes in movies. We should *always* be wary of internet videos that are attempting to use music to enhance themes being spoken. This is an appeal to emotion and should always be regarded with suspicion.
Juxtaposition is very commonly used in the spread of disinformation. A picture or video is shown with words appearing on the screen. The words are assumed to be describing the picture or video but there are a *lot* of examples of this not being the case. This technique is often now coupled with false images to further distort and alarm people for clicks and outrage harvesting.
I notice juxtaposition a lot when it is just used with words. This happens a lot with misinformation online when two ideas are meant to be linked in the minds of the audience. .
Links
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/juxtaposition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Research_Agency

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Grift Tactics

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Episode 53 - Grift Tactics
Hijacking Occam's Razor: Escalate the level of complexity about a topic until it reaches a level which is unknown by the other party, then declare that the other party doesn't know what they're talking about. In the confusion, insert your own narrative that is always much simpler. The simpler narrative almost always fails to account for all knowable observations but to most people it is good enough. The trick attempts to hijack Occam's Razor to make it *appear* as though the inserted, simpler narrative is more correct. It fails because for Occam's Razor to apply *all* observations must be accounted for in both explanations.
Gishgallop is a method of speaking in which someone makes a large number of claims in a very short time. Usually the large number of claims cannot possibly be debunked quickly enough and it looks like some are undebunkable to the casual listener. This is also known by other names: Firehose facts. The most effective counter to this is the Miyagi Defense: don't let it happen at all (best defense not be there).
Word salad is a collection of large, unwieldy words that are usually spoken in a smooth stream very quickly and become inaccessible to most audiences. It is used by the pretentious to sound more intelligent than anyone else in the room. Jordan Peterson is the third degree black belt in this style of debate.
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/steve-kirsch-and-brandolinis-law/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_salad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_A._Hill