TFY, Chapter seven summary- Evaluations: What's Judged?

An Evaluation is one variety of an opinion that can be either honest or hidden and manipulative. When you evaluate you, “Determine or fix the value or worth of something, or you examine, judge, appraise, or estimate. People make evaluations on a day to day basis. Evaluations can be made consciously or unconsciously. Evaluations are not facts. Try not to mistake evaluative words for facts. The author states, “Human tendency to evaluate first and think afterwards has a survival function. Our innate tendency to rush to judgment might save our lives in some situations but endanger us in others.” After the shooting and killing of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer, I noticed in the days after that I was wary of all police officers especially Bart police. I rushed to the judgment that they were all aggressive and I would become uncomfortable around them as if they were “the bad guy”. I let my feelings influence my evaluations and made judgments that were unfair. I was not thinking critically. An expectation is the act or state of looking forward or anticipating. Expectations influence our perceptions as well as our evaluations. Word connotations can be manipulative evaluations. Word connotations carry evaluations that influence our feelings, and in turn our feelings can form our opinions. An expert is a person with a reputation for making skilled evaluations. Experts such as doctors and lawyers are highly paid for their skilled evaluations. The author defines propaganda as, “The manipulation of public opinion for the benefit of the propagator.” Propaganda shows no respect for a rational argument or the truth. During the Holocaust, Hitler used propaganda to convince his nation that they the Aryans were superior to the Jews; In turn his people looked the other way while he committed genocide. In the years following 9/11 the Bush Administration used propaganda to get the backing of Congress and the American people to invade Iraq. He convinced the public that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction” In the end no weapons were found but hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have lost their lives, as well as thousands of American soldiers. Today’s propaganda is different; it is created by highly sophisticated public relation firms. These firms have a sophisticated knowledge of human psychology. Your television is used constantly to manipulate you. According to the book The plug-In Drug, television itself induces an immediate trance state in viewers, regardless of the content shown. People need to wake up to think critically. Learn to recognize propaganda strategies, in order to keep the power of decision making for yourself.