Uninformed and Misinformed Revisited

Talking points are simple phrases that PR people develop for an organization to forward their agenda. The “communications” specialist study what combination of words will have a desired affect on the chosen audience, massage and polish them and then issue them to the members of the organization. Thus are born phrases like “job killing health care”, Medicare killing proposal”, etc. The idea is to inject them into the conversation whenever possible whether totally appropriate or not. So following an event, all of a sudden one hears the exact same phrase coming out of the mouths of many. Some politicians use talking points sparingly and only if they fit very well into the discussion. Others just throw them around without regard for fact or context.

Today I heard an interview of Eric Cantor (I am only 90% sure it was him since I didn’t hear the introduction but heard him referred to as the Republican Whip) in which he made a couple statements that vividly illustrate the idiotic use of “talking points”. In reference to something Harry Reed voted against, he said that the reason Harry voted against it was because the “people wanted” it. The talking point he was injecting was “the people want” which is something often used by Republicans since the 2010 elections. If you stop and think about it, this is totally ridiculous. To think that any politician would go against something that the “people” want just because they want it is ludicrous. There is no benefit whatsoever to them in doing so. They want to be reelected. Cantor could have accused him of voting against something because he didn’t understand what people want (not hearing or understanding what the people want is a common accusation of Democrats) or that it was ideologically inconsistent or that it would offend his contributors or he thought wrongly that it is not good for the country or that he was ignorant or any number of other reasons, though one may disagree with them, that could make sense. But to say that he voted against or, for that matter, for something, just to go against what the “people wanted”, is plain dumb.

In the same interview Eric also said that he has been a businessman since he was twenty and unlike people who sell labor, businessmen try to create jobs. Here the talking point is “businessmen create jobs”. This also is ludicrous. Had he left out the word “try”, though I would disagree with him, it is a point we could debate. Success in business is making a profit. One can increase profit by cutting costs through improvements in efficiency. (read eliminate jobs) or by eliminating competition (also read eliminate jobs). That is what they “try” to do. There is nothing wrong with this. That is how the system works. Jobs are an unintended byproduct of businesses as a whole trying to maximize their individual profits. There is nothing in any business metric that treats increased number of jobs as a positive. Jobs are coincidental. So when Eric Cantor (or whoever) says businessmen try to create jobs he either doesn’t understand or just sees an opportunity to inject the talking point with impunity.

I think in both instances the truth probably is that he is just spouting “talking points” without really thinking about them because his followers on the extreme right will like the sound of these words and really not even consider their merits and as to the others, he just plain doesn’t care. Unfortunately this is the way many, if not most, on both sides of the isle operate. With ‘talking points’ used as broadly as they are today, it is very difficult to hear an intelligent conversation in the popular media. To make matters worse the talking points are picked up by the media favoring one or the other side to support their cause or by neutral media to increase ratings. As a result we the people really don’t get to hear many legitimate discussions and therefore are misinformed or at best uninformed. However, ultimately, in the case of politicians, the blame is with us. We allow, if not encourage, our politicians to continue this nonsense by reelecting them.