Al Franken: Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them

[AndrewC]

LIES and the Lying Lyers Who Tell Them - Al Franken

I loved this book!

I thought it was just my kind of humour and was very witty, with just the right level of 'silliness' that i like too.
As a 19 year old english student i'm not too sure who a lot of his targets are, (Rush Limburgh and Anne Coulter mean nothing to me) but its the way he attacks them and his own stories that really mad eme laugh.

 

[Halcyon]

I don't read books like that because I'm always worried my mind will become adulterated with misinformation. Even if it is just humor, I might remember a fragment of something and think it's true after enough time has passed.

Perhaps I’m being too paranoid. These books often go on national best-sellers. Maybe all this reading of humorous misinformation contributes to why so many people certain of their views after only reading for 20 minutes.

It also seems like people will read a book like this (wow, I’m getting off the point of this post big time – but these are my thoughts =)) as support of their own beliefs. For example, I’m more or less a independent, and I find myself much more attracted to progressive materials even though I know they are one-sided. They tell me what I already believe so it makes me happy

 

[RitalinKid]

I've read this book, and I also found it hilarious. However, I agree with Halcyon. I thought the book would be without bias, but when I started checking facts, there was bias. I've stopped reading political books because the authors will do whatever (including unethical things) to persuade you to believe them.

I consider myself Libertarian currently, and I think the left and right are just splitting everyone right down the middle.

 

[honeydevil]

I don't read books like that because I'm always worried my mind will become adulterated with misinformation. Even if it is just humor, I might remember a fragment of something and think it's true after enough time has passed.

with this problem, i can help! if you can't remember if this information you got is correct, then just say it or say that you read it one time, or just go to the net and find the information you need, to make you feel better!!

 

[Halcyon]

...if you can't remember if this information you got is correct, then just say it or say that you read it one time...

This is exactly what people should never do. With this quote you support my position that these books are dangerous. Think, the poor person I was talking to would be given more false information! I would spread 'lies' as potential truth and obfuscate any hard facts because I read a bias book and passed it.

 

[AndrewC]

I always read his and michael moores book with an open mind, i know full well they're just as committed to their beliefs as the rightwingers!

 

[Halcyon]

This thread reminded me of a quotation I read in “the well trained mind” by Susan Wise Bauer,

“Like badly taught six-year-olds, we are too quick too quick go straight to opinion making without the intermediate steps of understanding and evaluation.

The British mystery writer Dorothy L. Sayers, proposing a return to classical education, gave a speech at Oxford which influenced me greatly:

Has it ever struck you as odd, or unfortunate, that today, when the proportion of literacy is higher than it has ever been, people should have become susceptible to the influence of advertisement and mass propaganda to an extent hitherto unheard of and unimagined? … Have you ever, in listening to a debate among adults and presumably responsible people, been fretted by the extraordinary inability of the average debater to speak to the question, or to meet and refute the argument of the speakers on the other side?... And when you think of this, and think most of our public affairs are settled by debates and committees, have you ever felt a sinking of the heart? … Is not the great defect of our education today – a defeat traceable through all the disquieting symptoms of trouble that I have mentioned – that although we often succeed in teaching our pupils “subjects,” we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think: they learn everything, except the art of learning.”

 

[RitalinKid]

"...we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think: they learn everything, except the art of learning.”

Truer words have never been spoken. I don't know how many times I had that thought while I was in college. When I got to college, I didn't know the first thing about thinking or learning. I'm still not nearly as proficient as I should be, but I'm definitely better. Working has actually taught me a lot about learning and thinking. I'm not a fan of mandatory military service, but I'm kinda coming around to why mandatory military service in some European countries isn't such a bad thing. The work experience may enhance the learning experience. Some of the best professors I've had served under those circumstances and then became great physicists or engineers.

This way off topic. Do we need a new thread on education failures?

 

[Witchchild]

I loved this book, but I did not find it as laugh-out-loud hilarious as; Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.

~Witch