Why do Intelligent People Still Believe in Religion? 37a: Framing part 1 | GinaConspiracy
Framing is a fairly new field of study in communications and part of logic and debate Sadly if you aren't aware of how framing works, no logical argument you make will penetrate the population's consciousness
George Lakeoff is one of the forerunners in the study of framing, and its use of metaphores in the public psyche A frame is a metaphore filled with nuance and language that is intricately ingrained into the population Because each idea is so well understood by the populous, you can discuss complex concepts in very simple words and even sound bytes and people will get what you are saying It can be used to teach or convey a message or sadly frames can be used to spread a false narrative and lead people, without making logical fallacies of your own, to encourage them to make the logical fallacies for you Many times also they will use analogies to narrow the debate and then make people forget that they are just analogies, and make logical sounding arguments even when the limits of the analogy's usefulness is broken
An example he uses in his book, “Don't think about an Elephant” which is a book discussing why the Democrats kept losing to the Republicans until 2006 even when they had more facts on their side than the GOP I don't want to get into a partisan discussion here or sound biased, but as the GOP in the last decade has become the religious right, most of my readers(viewers) will be either of liberal or libertarian persuasion The examples he uses involve the home and the parenting models in the minds of all of us That seems to be a narrative that is extremely well-known, well-understood, emotional, nuance There are two different models of parenting in the American Narrative, there is the patriarchal family model, that involves a strong, protecting, but punishing and absolute father, and there is the nurturing parent model, where the two main founding ideals of this parent is empathy and responsibility, and making the tough decisions to be the better adult
It is quit probable that America's two party system as opposed to multiparty system helps the GOP to control the frame even more All of us are well familiar with both models thanks to movies and literature None of us have to have it explained to us, so they can skip it and just use the language we know It is the fact that it is so ingrained into us that we don't realize what is happening when the frame being used on us It narrows the field of focus of reality and without you realizing it, you've limited your options in the argument to a small range of argument choices, so you of course chose the logical of the two ideas, without realizing that there is much more to the argument than you can grasp, but learning that would not work in a sound byte but more of an hour long lecture
Its this groundwork in the mind that is why scientists only now are beginning to realize that they need to create a narrative for why science is real and important for the average person, which is something they've kind of neglected for the past 20 years and are now facing angry backlash, and the resurgence of pseudoscience, creationism, and new phenomena of climate change denialism Being taught a false version of evolution and creationism, I of course chose creationism, I had no idea the topic was so much broader and I had much more options than what I was told The patriarchal frame has been part of the American narrative from its conception However with the rise of science it began to lose credibility among the more liberal religious until Child psychologist Dr James Dobson gave it sciency sounding legitimacy
His book “Dare to discipline” resurrects the biblical narrative that the father is the strong head of the household, the wife and children are submissive, he is firm and his word is law The mindset stems from the biblical concept that all children begin as evil and it takes firm painful discipline to beat the evil out of them Spanking, pain and punishment is considered tough love God sending people to hell and letting them suffer is viewed as love by this model If you give them an inch, or let them them get away with anything, then you have spoiled them
If you give them things they didn't earn then they are spoiled As soon as they are adults(assuming they aren't daughters and then as soon as they marry), you are no longer responsible for them, and if they are good disciplined people, they will be prosperous in life If they get anything they didn't earn they will not only be lazy but also evil and sinners because the sin wasn't beaten out of them enough Dobson either missed the the class explaining the point of peer reviewed research in psychology, or in more likelihood, had his beliefs and went to get his degree to give his own beliefs legitimacy Either way he is one of the worst child psychologists out there because nothing he proposes is backed up by modern peer reviewed psychology
If you are only aware of the patriarchal model, this makes logical sense Sadly there have also been a lot of bad parenting books based on fluff bunny ideas, only loosely backed by science that give the nurturing parent model a bad name People follow Dobson with all of the best intentions, they truly do love their kids, and they see how bad parents with no discipline raise their kids so they don't want their child to end up like that They are completely unaware that there are scientific alternatives to spanking, of course it involves changing and preparing yourself before you have the children or during child raising which is hard because child rearing is so distracting The nurturing parent model involves the narrative the a child starts out of good, but need gentle guidance and education
The child is a blank slate and a sponge ready to absorb and be filled with new ideas Each child is different and the parent has to take the responsibility to learn child psychology tactics as well as child specific tactics The parents must have empathy and be in touch with the child's emotions and help to cultivate curiosity, generosity, love of learning and empathy leading by example The use of knowledge as opposed to force as a way to lead A parent must be the grown up and take the responsibility to be the adult and the peacemaker, or the protector when the sitution deems itself necessary so the child can learn by example
The patriarchal model doesn't require leading by example, though it's recommended Its more of a side recommendation and not essential so its easy for the strong parent to forget and just be heavy handed and use the do what I say not what I do mentality When you don't know this method, or have only seen bad versions of this style of parenting, just like with bad watered down quote mined versions of evolution it sounds like the biblical idea is much better Sadly because the nurturing parent when characaturized can be framed as weak and naïve or “feminine”, and the nurturing parent requires learning and tactics, it can be used to create and propagate the anti-intellectualism that permeates our society, even though the nurturing parent requires making better informed, nuanced and flexible decisions instead of a tough one sized fits all hammer punishment The nurturing parent takes a lot more work and is more difficult and stronger emotionally
But thinking is hard and wimpy so just be a tough badsass, loner, distant father figure because it appears easier and more logical compared to the oversimplified nurturing parent narrative The GOP grabbed this frame when the religious institutions decided to support the republican party They used the language of the religious right and got a lot of power out of it They called smaller nations “emerging nations” indicating they were children that needed strong father parenting forcing their morals on their children They also created the narrative that severe punishment is needed as opposed to thoughtful preventative educational measures like what the nurturing parent calls for
Punishment and brute force are the only way as opposed to last resort which the nurturing parent cinsiders a necessary tool but only when all other options are off the table The fatherly system believes that the punishment system is the first line of defense and is completely and only vaguely aware of other methods of parenting The fatherly system is also why gay marriage is so vilified by the right, unmanly parent equals spoiling child which prevents evil from being beaten out of them which leads to break down of society The nurturing parenting is genderless and is completely compatible with a gay parent Empathy and responsibility are completely genderless, they are just what it means to be a good parent
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