How to Be Sure

The subtitle for chapter eight in UnSpun is “How to Be Sure.” Well, how can we really be sure that our facts are actually facts? After all, we are misled so often and pulled in so many different directions that it is hard to know what is real and what is illusion. We fall so easily for the traps that propagandists and advertisers so often set for us.

I like that this chapter gives us ways we can try to avoid this deception. It is one of the few chapters in the book that tells us what to do and not just what to avoid. Rule #4, Check Primary Sources, was one that really caught my attention. I feel that people just believe the first stories they hear because they do not feel like digging deeper for real information. We are all guilty of doing this. Even newspaper headlines can sometimes be deceiving because they often include words which have been taken out of context. However, chapter four says we should read newspaper articles thinking, “Does this story really back up the headline?” If we read the article in depth and search for details, we can tell whether or not the headline is appropriate.

Real Evidence

Perhaps, some people are born skeptics—they possess an innate ability to see right through anything and everyone. Others, however, might be more inclined to look for the goodness or truth in people, products, and evidence. It is not until many people have been jaded by a certain idea that they then become cynical. For example, when I was a little girl, I always wanted to try the products on the “As Seen on TV” infomercials. One day, I saw an infomercial for the “Hairagami”—a product that would let you fold your hair, so to speak. I remember thinking that I could use the hairagami to make really cool ponytails and buns for my hair. My mom, already having been jaded by these infomercials, told me the products usually didn’t work the way they did on television. But, being the strong-willed child I was, I bugged and bugged for a hairagami. When my mom finally caved and ordered it, I was really disappointed that the product didn’t work as well as expected. It was really hard to fold the hairagami so that it fit right with my hair. Needless to say, there began my skepticism of TV infomercials. As a consumer, I didn’t research the product deep enough to find out its many flaws.

Chapter six in unSpun does a good job of addressing this need for finding the hard evidence before making any rash decisions. We need to look for real truths—the ones behind the propaganda. For example, it would be important to examine any medicine, like Cold-Eeze, before taking it in order to see if it’s as good as its label says. Unfortunately, in our society, it is probably not as good as the label makes it out to be. Similarly, we need to watch out for the appeals to authority in advertising. For example, as the text points out, Martin Sheen’s TV portrayal of a president shouldn’t be enough for us to trust his political judgments (125). A while back, I read an interview with Grey’s Anatomy actor Patrick Dempsey (Derek Shepherd aka McDreamy). Dempsey said that he had once been on a plane where another passenger became very ill. To his surprise everyone looked at him like he should help the sick passenger. Of course when people become panicked they often get desperate, but just because someone plays a doctor on TV does not mean he or she is competent in the field of medicine. We just need to dig deep and get past the fallacies.

Get the Facts

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the old adage "haste makes waste." This saying is one of the essential messages in chapter five of unSpun. Specifically, it relates to the story of Daniel Bullock. Bullock was a reputable doctor in California until he was part of a tax evasion scam. Evidently, Bullock thought he could legally avoid paying his taxes. In reality, he was just dealing with a smooth-talking scammer who told Bullock what he wanted to hear. What the good doctor neglected to do, however, was research the facts. I find it hard to believe that such an educated man would believe such a crazy trick. I guess money matters make people do things they wouldn’t normally do. It just goes to show that propaganda and fraud are always around us—from television ads to deceptive money saving “tips.”

I like that the title of the chapter is “Facts Can Save Your Life.” It really emphasizes that people need to dig deep for the truths out there. After all, as this chapter suggests, once we get past the lies, we can see what is really happening politically, medically, and socially in our world. Still, people construct their own truths and hear what they want to hear. The only way we will be able to hear everything is if we take down our blinders. I agree with the authors of unSpun in that being open to getting the facts right “can save your money, your health, even your freedom” (84).