Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

I Will Monitor The Gender Equality News Sites of My Choice

how about i expose the fact that Urgent Evoke is trying to force us to look at only the news that they want us to see?

here's some dirt-digging on UN created projects that have harmed women for years:


also, in case i don't make it past the moderators, my additions to the INVESTIGATE thread:

i think that cultural aspects that promote sexism and discrimination are all around the world, and it is important that we EXPOSE and CONFRONT all of them. they are the underlying root of the problem that must be dealt with.

20. which religions and cultural stereotypes (and perversions thereof) around the world promote sexism and discrimination by perpetuating artificial gender standards and expectations throughout history – and what can be done?


21. how does a lifetime of exposure to unhealthy, mysogynist and bogus depictions of ‘ideal/pretty/subservient’ women by the media and society continue to hinder gender equality? how does it affect both the growth of women and the perspective of men on women’s rights?


22. what is the figurehead fallacy? how does considering the problem as ’solved’ harm the gender equality movement?


i will continue to monitor the news sites of my choice. Urgent Evoke agents; be SKEPTICAL and CRITICAL and find news sites of your own!


remember, seek the TRUTH!

Views: 48

Comment by Ezra Ho on April 9, 2010 at 6:02am
I agree with nomadhar that it is very difficult for most people to look at unfamiliar information with an open mind. Because of the centralised mainstream media, most people have been conditioned to follow a certain worldview. Anything that falls outside is relegated to the world of "conspiracy theories".

However, regarding vaccines and population control, there is evidence that the HPV vaccine for instance, is 400% for fa... While jumping to the conclusion that vaccines are part of a ploy to depopulate the Earth etc will definitely alienate less radical people, I prefer to approach this situation from the perspective, "Who Benefits"?

The more vaccines are made and sold, the more profits the pharmaceutical industry makes. Whether or not they are effective, cause the problems they are supposed to prevent is a wh*** different issue.
Comment by Sarah Shaw Tatoun on April 9, 2010 at 6:16am
I think this is part of the larger question of how to develop our evaluation skills -- so that we are not either, on the one hand, accepting mainstream media or government sources unquestioningly -- or going to the other extreme and assuming everything they say is untrue.

Clay Shirky talks about this in his Web 2.0 speech, "It's not internet overload, it's filter failure." and Howard Rheingold, in "Crap Detection 101" says, "Unless a great many people learn the basics of online crap detection and begin applying their critical faculties en masse and very soon, I fear for the future of the Internet as a useful source of credible news, medical advice, financial information, educational resources, scholarly and scientific research... We are indeed inundated by online noise pollution, but the problem is soluble. The good stuff is out there if you know how to find and verify it. Basic information literacy, widely distributed, is the best protection for the knowledge commons..." Michael Wesch talks about it in the context of education. He gets his anthropology students developing wikis, creating videos, creating a multilayered conversation using twitter and facebook on top of lectures.

Here are some of the most important 'crap detection' tools everyone should learn to use:

1. Basic statistical literacy. Yes, good statistical design is hard, and it's easy for even the best researchers to make mistakes-- but on the other hand, bogus statistics and studies are easy to spot with a little practice. And no legitimate researcher produces bogus statistics. Producing obviously false statistics is the best sign you can have that someone's work is not to be trusted.

2. Question yourself. What are your own biases that might lead you to accept some claim a little too uncritically? What are your values? What are 'trigger words' for you that lead to an immediate emotional reaction and might cloud your thinking? Who do you love? Who do you hate? Can you treat the ideas of both fairly?

3. Learn the tools of propaganda. When I was in school our Civics teacher gave us a wh*** list of things to beware of. One of the ones I remember most clearly is using a pet or small child to disarm criticism. The example she gave was Richard Nixon's 'Checkers' speech, in which he responded to charges of accepting large gifts from vested interests by talking emotionally the dog given to his children.

4. Learn how conspiracy theories work and why they're so persuasive. I can't find the article I was thinking of-- maybe it was in Snopes (which, by the way, is probably the best site to check if you are suspicious of the facts of a story you hear), but wikipedia has a good article on their history and construction, and this article from the Wall Street Journal has some good points.

5. Learn some of the general rules and fallacies that scientists use to filter the evidence. Occam's razor, as Mark mentioned is one. There's also 'Ceteris Paribus' -- or all things being equal. In economics the fallacy of composition is one of the three major fallacies to beware of: it says don't assume that what's true for one, or a small group is necessarily true for a larger group-- or for all.

The facts aren't always easy to uncover-- and even once you have them it would be a mistake to assume from that that you really have the 'truth'. But a lot of errors are pretty easy to spot. I agree with Howard Rheingold that we should all get good at.
Comment by Mark Mulkerin on April 9, 2010 at 6:49am
@Ezra - Vaccines to make money. Please, the cost of the HPV vaccine is a couple hundred dollars (and is on the expensive side of things). The cost to treatment cancer in the US runs from 10s of thousands to 100s of thousands of dollars. If you were a drug company and only interested in profit which gets you more per customer ... I wouldn't be arguing over these points if I didn't firmly believe that making people paranoid about vaccines kills people. With three little kids, I am well aware every time they need a vaccination that they could be the rare case that has severe side effects, but getting them vaccinated protects them from worse outcomes and protects those who can't be vaccinated.

@nomadHAR, Yes, there are conspiracies. Yes, people get lied to. I live in a country where the government is pretty darn tight about what its people can see, hear, and say, but everybody pretty much knows what is really going on behind the scenes. It isn't a secret, it just isn't said in public. My contention is that most cover ups like sticking brake pedals have more to do with embarrassment, self-deception, and denial than with darker motives. Conspiracies don't surprise me. The idea that there are nationwide or worldwide conspiracies involving thousands of people keeping silent on something major does surprise me. We aren't that competent. Magic has been a hobby and occasional profession for me for twenty something years and I've learned that we see things that aren't there and hear things that were never spoken and remember things in a thoroughly compromised way. It's human. Sarah raises excellent points on how to check yourself. It is normal to wish that someone was in charge and knew what they were doing if is they are evil gits. I don't believe that - I believe we are mucking about in the dark and those with a little more skill and a lot more luck end up on top.

@Sarah - YES! Just say no to calculus, make everyone learn stats.
Comment by A.V.Koshy on April 9, 2010 at 7:07am
dear nomadhar - i like your post for several reasons and many of your comments
speaking of gender, rights, inequality, injustice, ineqity -when we come to address its root causes as a theoretician and critic i agree with 99.99 per cent of the things you are saying here
my first point of enquiry would be about "culture"
the culture in which one is born tells one what the "place" of a woman or women is and what "space" they can occupy
this culture is reinforced as you said by figureheads, biased readings of religious texts that still maintain unbeleivable authority over the lives of millions towards set actions because adherents of the religions are not supposed to read the texts closely and objectively and analytically but only to have them interpreted to them
lack of economic freedom - this is caused by society and generations of oppression
so i agree with you that if cultural aspects promote sexism, gender discrimination and casteism they must be fought and not left alone but from the inside and they must be engaged in dialogue from the outside so that they cannot be left unexposed.
regarding links suggested by urgent evoke - it is not stated we have to go there
we can give alternate links
the freedom is offered and in all my learns i have been posting links to other organizations that are doing work on the same lines as are not objectionable to my conscience on women's issues
even regarding act - though evoke tells us of organizations we can give to i dont see them saying give only to these organizations
giving to these organizations can become then a way of paying for the privilege of playing this game and accessing all this information but only if we want it to be - it's optional
as you say - if one is not bothered about points or winning one can play the game as it ought to be played
i do not understand what mark mulkerin is saying
i do understand what you are saying
"sexuality and nudity are beautiful and natural things; we are all beautiful, inside and out. sexuality does not equal sexual frustration. nudity does not equal exploitative pornography"
"there are better vaccines out there that are not CONTAMINATED INTENTIONALLY"
this applies to sterilization as well as vaccines that are suspected to cause autism too
sterilization has a place when it is voluntary. it should not be used as a way to counter impregnation

"sterilization has a place when it is voluntary. it should not be used as a way to counter impregnation by RAPESremember, a woman can be raped by her husband, too."

similarly i agree that you must share unseen and unknown perspectives and that you need to question everything and be questioned thoroughly before you go into action - much research ,calm thought, everything is needed....
Comment by nomadHAR on April 9, 2010 at 7:10am
@Ezra: thanks for bringing more hard facts!

@Mark ok, then stick your head in the sand and pretend like people aren't intelligent and malicious enough to work together on a large scale to further their own ends of money or power, even when the leak sites i listed show massive HARD EVIDENCE of such malfeasance. have you seen the movie 'The Insider'? plus, you miss the point about vaccines; instead of blindly trusting them, perhaps you should make sure that what you are giving your children is of the purest and highest quality. do i have to state AGAIN that i believe in vaccinations?

@Sarah: i like what you are saying about criticism and skepticism. however, i do not agree with the negative connotations you have on conspiracy theory. i actually remember the article on Snopes but i do not know where it is. i think marginalizing any idea as crazy and impossible, without proof to the contrary, creates an environment where people are not apt to even consider theories that are not widely accepted.
Comment by Ezra Ho on April 9, 2010 at 7:20am
Mark and nomad,

There is no need to get angry or frustrated when someone disagrees with us for a view, which seems (individually) to be illogical.

People tend to exhibit this kind of behaviour because in our society, we are conditioned to see being incorrect as being inferior and as a result, closed minds and aggressive egos are the dominant mentality in society.

Let's just accept that no one knows everything and even if something seems outrageous, we have no basis to condemn without investigation. As Einstein stated, "Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance."
Comment by nomadHAR on April 9, 2010 at 7:27am
@A.V.Koshy: you bring up a very, very important point about being respectful of cultures, and that we should avoid ethnocentric views. i also really like the idea of engaging problems from both inside and outside. also, i hope that people don't think that i have something against religion; i do think that biased interpretations have led to social inequalities. the following is the Reformist Quran (FREE to download), which reveals a lot of INTENTIONAL mistranslations that have led to sexist beliefs:

http://www.irshadmanji.com/reformist-quran

i am also glad that you mentioned the possible link between some vaccines and autism. as far as i have read, some has been due to the use of heavy metals used in sterilizing vaccines. i have actually witnessed an autistic friend's condition visibly improve after using filters on water to remove heavy metals.
Comment by Mark Mulkerin on April 9, 2010 at 7:50am
@nomadHAR - I'm not talking about the other cover ups - they exist and guess what, they get their covers blown. I'm asking what non-hearsay evidence you can point to that the UN is tainting tetanus shots. I doubt the claim based on the fact that those making it have a demonstrable bias. If you have clear evidence on the tainting (intentional tainting) do share and I will condemn it as loudly as I can.

@AV - Should I be surprised that you don't see my perspective? Not so much. I once was in a discussion with another writing major and I claimed that there is a common humanity even if it is at the most basic level - the heartbeat under each line of iambic pentameter. She promptly accused me of discriminating against people with irregular heartbeats. I've pursued literature, I've read the literary theorists (there isn't much you could tell me about Derrida, Foucault, Said, and the rest), and I concluded that literature is glorious and literary theory is a distraction. I believe the frontiers of human consciousness are getting probed by the neuroscientists and psychologists, not by theorists telling me that life is a reading and all reading have equal merit. So yes, you aren't likely to see my perspective as long as you regard the scientific method as merely another culturally bound reading/belief system and not a tool for evaluating the physical world. The chasm is just too great which saddens me.

Best regards,
Mark
Comment by Ezra Ho on April 9, 2010 at 7:54am
But Mark, although the scientific approach is a tool which allows us to better evaluate the world, we are still bound by our cultural environment which shapes and filters the information we receive.
Comment by Mark Mulkerin on April 9, 2010 at 7:54am
PS Anybody can make a webpage that says anything - evidence is needs to hit a certain standard; however, we aren't going to convince each other, so I'm respectfully taking my leave from the conversation and won't be following it. Good luck, god speed, and goodbye.

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