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Being Rushed

One of the inspirations for my blogging is my friend Michael Covington's far-superior blog. His most recent entry as I write this is 

https://www.covingtoninnovations.com/michael/blog/2212/index.html#x221222

It articulated something that I've often thought of; that feeling I have that someone is rushing me to keep me from thinking something through clearly.  I am often rushed without malice because of the impatience of others but here I am thinking of when someone is trying to sell me something, and in particular, trying to convince me to support a political idea that goes against my values. It is fairly commonplace for me to read an opinion that contains ten whoppers in the lead paragraph. It is easy to spot when reading; Michael notes how often rhetoric is spoken rather than written in hope that folk won't think about what they are hearing.

I was working in a hotel lobby last week with Fox Business News blaring on a nearby television set. It was stressful hearing a high density of opinions that seemed far-fetched to me being presented as universal truths, one right after another, without explanation or challenge. I think this is one of the things that drew me to academia. Not that all opinions there are truthful but that the expectation is to consider them rather than accept them blindly.

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