> I’ve seen this kind of phenomenon first hand when it comes to drugs.
In 7th or 8th grade, I remember watching a video in health class that included a (presumably fictional) dramatization where a kid died his first time trying marijuana because (unbeknownst to him) it had been laced with crack cocaine. It was difficult to take much of health class seriously after seeing that video.
If your audience doesn't have much background in your subject matter, they're still able to spot lazy arguments. They know they're unable to judge the merits of the rest, but the lazy arguments spoil the whole message. Many times, lazy arguments are less damaging when the audience has the necessary background to evaluate everything being said.
The late hip hop artist DMX first got hooked on crack after being given a blunt laced with crack. The addiction would haunt him for the rest of his life and eventually lead to his heart failure. In the video, about 3 mins in, you can see how much that moment weighed on him, after decades.
I'm saying maybe there's actually a decent bit of truth in the hokey video. But maybe that's they'd be better off showing DMX than an overdramatized skit.
No information is proper enough. Like the second comment from top points out, the goalposts are always shifted.
Information on vaccine studies? Rushed.
Information on vaccine rollouts from countries that have reached 75-80% of the entire population vaccinated? Faked/not applicable.
Information comparing cases/deaths in US states with neighbouring states having higher vaccination rates? Invalid.
Look, be honest here. There’s more than enough information out there and none of it is being hidden. Hundreds of millions have gotten the shot and the benefits are abundantly clear. For example - “Despite Delta, severe covid-19 is much rarer among vaccinated Britons“ (https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/09/18/despite-...).
But this doesn’t make a difference. Despite all this information being available, people will still rely on faulty information like “Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend became impotent after he took the vaccine”. FWIW, the White House treated Minaj like an adult and reached out to have a conversation with her. But she didn’t change her mind.
> treat people like adults
If they were intelligent adults they’d be able to evaluate the data for themselves. Instead they watch YouTube videos telling them to “do their own research” followed by checking out Nicki Minaj’s tweets.
Go ahead. Try having an open debate with Nicki Minaj or Kyrie Irving or any vaccine skeptic with millions of followers. Let me know how that goes.
From the get-go, the messaging should have been: "This is an evolving situation, and we're doing our best to keep up. Right now, our recommendations are X. As we learn, those are going to change."
That's what Japan did. Humility and respect.
It worked.
In the US, it was: "Masks don't work! You're too stupid to even know how to use one properly. Save them for nurses. No, wait, if you don't wear your mask, you're literally killing grandma! We'll arrest your goat-fucking inbred ass if you don't mask up. Trump's vaccine? You'd have to be a colossal moron to take that experimental garbage. Not for me! No, wait, it's Biden's vaccine now? If you don't get the jab, you're Hitler Squared! Don't want it? You're fired!"
How well this worked is left as an exercise for the reader.
You can't possibly compare the USA's culture to Japan's. The USA is incredibly individualistic and many Americans hold deep-seated distrust of any government/societal institutions.
Japan's culture is entirely communal. You don't talk on a cellphone on the train because it may inconvenience other passengers. You wear a mask when you're sick so you don't inconvenience others. So much of Japan's culture is rooted in making sure you aren't disrupting the general flow of society.
You can talk about "improper messaging" in the USA, but that rests squarely with President Trump. The entire point of that position is to be the figurehead of America and a unifying presence when things go wrong. He did not, and it caused irreparable damage to the trust and cohesiveness of the public early on in the pandemic.
> You can't possibly compare the USA's culture to Japan's.
I can and shall.
> Much of Japan's culture is rooted in making sure you aren't disrupting the general flow of society.
It may surprise you to learn that the US was like this before. And that Japan probably won't be in forty years' time.
You know that movie trope from the 70s and before, where somebody needs a car, gets in one, which is, of course, unlocked, pulls down the visor, and the keys drop into their lap?
That's what it's like where I live.
My town had a home invasion last week. I don't think I've ever heard of that happening here.
> But that rests squarely with President Trump
No.
The establishment burned every ounce of credibility available to burn, succeeded in ousting Trump from office, and is now crying that everything has gone all firey like.
If Trump got a Big Mac on Monday, that was proof he was a Nazi. If he didn't on Tuesday, that was more proof that he was a Nazi.
Biden could nuke Dallas tomorrow and MSNBC would defend him without question. As would probably half the GOP.
The problem with "winning at any cost" is the cost.
Like it or not, that's the state of things in the US.
> many Americans hold deep-seated distrust of any government/societal institutions.
Those insitiutions could work on earning trust, for example by showing humility and respect, like your parent suggested.
Instead they have chosen to outright lie to the people they have supposed to serve and now its somehow those peoples fault when they trust the institutions even less.
Your US section is mostly accurate (and mortifying for the "trust the government" argument) in terms of how it was mentioned, but I disagree the "Trump's vaccine" segment. The numbers of the rollout might fit that story after the fact, but doesn't make it true.
Moreover, the entire odyssey of you should get this vaccine but only if you're in a very specific age or risk pool and let's punish people and hospitals who violate this set of ever-evolving poorly communicated rules did happen and might be even worse.
There's a supercut of prominent Blue Team folks -- including the Vice President! -- publicly refusing to to take "Trump's Vaccine".
After Biden took office, they executed an "about face" so hard that their heads are functional gyroscopes.
Totally agreed on the rest. My stance is simple: get the shot if you're in a high-risk group. Otherwise, your choice, for which you should never be punished.
Ya, and I bet that supercut cut out all the context and key parts of what they said. I've seen one showing Kamala Harris saying she wouldn't take a vaccine that Trump told her to take. But they cut out the next sentence where she says, but if our health officials and doctors and scientists say it's safe to take it, then I will.
That worked in Japan because the culture there is far less selfish. People there would already wear masks when sick to avoid spreading it to others.
But in the US, you have people who continue to make arguments about how it's stupid to force them to wear a mask because others are afraid of getting COVID. I saw a really bad meme about that the other day where one person was walking with an umbrella and angrily telling someone else to also use an umbrella so the person with the umbrella wouldn't get wet.
I think the bigger point is the lack of trust in our public health rather than laying out the facts. The same way any person who is pro-vax will argue how beneficial it is, is the same way a person who doesn't believe it is beneficial to them will argue it out.
There is no one clear science, one clear truth to rule them all in this pandemic. This is the only truth I have come to terms with.
I see anti-vaxxers with their straw man arguments as just people who have no trust in the government and the health authorities. Can't blame them though, since the pandemic started almost 2 years ago, there is still a lot we don't know about it's actual origins.
I saw a similar video in junior high and thought it was ridiculous. Then in high school I knew a girl who was raped by several guys at a party who gave her weed laced with something that made her pass out. I don't know if I would have considered it a lazy argument if that girl had told her story when I was 13. There was just something hamfisted and out of touch about those DARE videos.
They could, but "I'm feeling kind of funny, it must be the weed" is easier to slide by compared to "I'm feeling kind of funny, I need to call Dad ASAP".
I guess they could have. At the time in the 90s, rohypnol wasn't so common. And now, girls are much more careful about watching their drinks than watching their weed. The fact that she was out at a party with older boys and smoking weed definitely made it impossible to tell her parents. But I guess the point of all of this is that these stupid educational videos about drugs would be more effective if they talked about real things that happen instead of trying to create false fears. The reality of being a teen surrounded by drugs and sex abuse is scary enough.
In 7th or 8th grade, I remember watching a video in health class that included a (presumably fictional) dramatization where a kid died his first time trying marijuana because (unbeknownst to him) it had been laced with crack cocaine. It was difficult to take much of health class seriously after seeing that video.
If your audience doesn't have much background in your subject matter, they're still able to spot lazy arguments. They know they're unable to judge the merits of the rest, but the lazy arguments spoil the whole message. Many times, lazy arguments are less damaging when the audience has the necessary background to evaluate everything being said.