Ralph Josephsohn: Red flags of political hype
Oct. 31—There are time-honored conundrums which boggle the mind. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear, is there a sound? Is there a tree? Is there a forest? Is there anything at all? In the realm of physics, sound is an interplay of cause and effect. The answer is yes. In the realm of the audible sensory perception of the ears, the answer is no.
Filters cleanse the air we breathe, purify the water we drink, sharpen the images we see. Filters modulate the current flow of wavelengths and frequencies occupying the electromagnetic spectrum. Filtration through reverse osmosis desalinates water. Dialysis filters toxins from blood.
Humans have sensory organs of eyes, ears, nose, skin, and taste buds. The stimuli gathered by these sensory receptors are communicated to the brain via a network of neurotransmitters bridging a highway of billions of synapse gaps. The brain processes, ranks and prioritizes these stimuli in conjunction with assaying the functional value of importance, relevance, and trustworthiness. So processed, information is stored in memory at various levels of recall, or discarded into the oblivion of forgetfulness. Without a breaker box to filter out irrelevant flotsam and jetsam, the mind would be overloaded and blow a cerebral fuse. This would result in a mental meltdown. Experts theorize that sorting of stimuli occurs during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep cycles.
Some stimuli carry red flags warning of imminent danger or impending catastrophe. Red flag stimuli of doom and gloom zoom at lightning speeds along neural expressways without restraint or analytical discernment. Emergency ramps evade deliberative thoughts causing delay. Any delay beyond an instantaneous reflexive reaction could literally lead to a dead end.
The brain has an additional internal sixth sense which subconsciously filters fifth sense stimuli through a prism of an individual's personal biases and intuitions. The sixth sense interprets the meaning and orientation given these perceptions. Once filtered, perceptions may become convoluted, obfuscated, sharpened, minimized or rejected by the sixth sense.
Political ads often filter informational red flag stimuli through the psychodynamics of a prism designed to enforce or redirect preexisting biases and predilections. Red flags can germinate seeds of alarm, emotional stress, intolerance and psychological upheaval. A proliferation of incessant political ads grating the senses could fry cerebral circuits by overload, and cause a mental meltdown. Red flag stimuli can be designed to hone or dethrone mindsets implicating sixth sense biases, intuitions, and loyalties, however distorted or exaggerated they may be. They are launched to inflict electroconvulsive shocks which may linger, precluding compromise and collaboration long after the dust of a political campaign settles. Detouring votes from avenues leading to a better destination is an anathema to free elections and democracy.
Candidates depict political opponents in grainy and unflattering black and white caricatures accompanied with sonic undertones of a menacing shark attack haunting the movie Jaws. They are depicted as ideological extremists. Endorsed candidates are depicted in vibrant colors, a dulcet setting, and soothing sounds. Trump's disciples are depicted as zealots of MAGA who continue to maintain election fraud. Biden's followers are champions of truth, justice and the American way who represent hard working citizens. They strive to evict Trump from his gilded Mar-a-Lago cage, dispatching him to serve time (not office) behind ferrous bars. Red flag political hype passes stimuli of genetically modified wheat through a mill of the sixth sense. Information passing through this prism is designed to manipulate voters' ingrained sixth sense of biases and loyalties. Depicting a candidate in the black and white in the context of a red flag issues (e.g. abortion, crime, immigration, inflation, taxation) confines votes to a narrow platform not encompassing a broader range of issues to best comprehensively serve the public interest. Even the politically color-blind can perceive and distinguish shades of gray between black and white. The targeted manipulation of votes through a provocative mindset filter can be persuasive, unless a skeptical nose sniffs out the stench of hogwash. This requires careful research, astute objectivity, due diligence, and skepticism when assessing red flag alarms and accusations. Pass them through an untainted sixth sense filter to comprehensively consider and weigh the merits and consequences of the votes you will cast.
