I have not yet put this thought down completely and now wish to return to it. I asked for examples yet none were forthcoming. If I may present a sort of example of the validity a belief in leftist media’s attempts at swinging opinion “brainwashing”. A sort of political way of influencing the thoughts of others, as an aid in the discussion.
I’d like to introduce, as example, the media hype surrounding the young environmentalist Greta Thunberg. She holds some rather exaggerated positions regarding the environment, such as her recent claims that ecosystems are in collapse all over the planet. I thought that a rather incredulous statement. So, I did some poking around. I did an internet search on collapsed ecosystems and found three examples presented as representation of a collapsed ecosystem. Before I did this poking I assumed a collapsed ecosystem was one that could no longer support life, where extinction was taking place, but as I poked a bit further I found that is not how the expression is used. A collapsed ecosystem is one where the predominant species consumer of resources was no longer present in the ecosystem, yet other species populations are increasing in its place. What is called a collapsed ecosystem is actually an imbalance caused by human intervention, where due to over-harvesting, and environmental changes a shift in the species an ecosystem can support has taken place. The predominant species that was once found in abundance can no longer acquire the resources it needed to survive and other species, perhaps, more suited to adaptation are taking it’s place. In this opinion the leftist media increasing this hype is responsible for inaccurately, and exaggeratedly stating a case that is already inaccurate and an exaggerated example.
She also made the statement that species are going extinct and sighted as example the Northern White Rhino. There are two subspecies of the White Rhino, the Northern White and the Southern White Rhino. The subspecies distinction is not limited only by their respective geographic habitats but also subtle physiological differences, like the size of a back hump, a difference in forehead structure and the presence of ridges along the sides of their necks. In the case of the Northern White Rhino, the population has been reduced due to over hunting to the point there are just two remaining examples in the wild, both females, so the prognosis is not good for chances for reproduction, within that subspecies. The Southern White Rhino’s population during the last census was estimated in the range between 19,000 and 21,000 individuals. A subspecies is on the brink of extinction, but the population of the species as a whole doesn’t even meet the determination of endangered, while it is considered threatened.
With our animal husbandry practices, we have introduced a wide variety of species differentiation. Take for example the emergence of the Chocolate Labrador. The species was once limited to a Black colored Labs, but a reticent gene for lighter coat color was expressing itself in the population of black labs. Males and females that held this gene for lighter coat colors were crossed bred to influence the likelihood of this genes expression, until a stable Golden Lab was produced. That is to say the breeding between two Golden Labs was more likely to express a golden color to their coats than a black color. Now interbreeding of Golden Labs and Black Labs is taking place and a coat color in between the dark version and light colored versions has taken place. Further interbreeding of Labs with coat colors in between have created a stabilized expression of a Chocolate colored Labrador Retriever. So on one hand our affects on one species is reducing a single subspecies while on the other hand our practices of hybridization are creating a more diverse subspecies presence in a population of animals. How these species interactions within an ecosystem is changing the landscape isn’t completely understood. If the Northern savannas of Africa are changing due the decreased presence of the subspecies, Northern White Rhino, it seems an easy enough solution to transplant members of the Southern White Rhino into North Africa, to create a new hybrid that could perform the same function in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem of the northern savanna in Africa.
How critical is the loss of a subspecies, due to mans involvement in the reduction of that species population to the point of extinction? It is an important philosophical question, yet it is also an important scientific question.
I doubt this sort of influence can be considered brain washing but it sure seems an example of an attempt to influence human thinking. So is what is taking place economically all over the internet; the mining of individual preference data in the hopes of increasing the consumption of a good or a service, as a human behavior, not also an example of attempts to influence human attitudes. This sort of pressure is being masterminded by those on the right side of the equation. It is systematic, and pervasive, targeted and directed with the same sort of methodologies exhibited from the left. Get a population hooked on a device, and use that device to gather data that increased the likelihood of an increased dependency on the device and furthered capability to affect human behavior. It is difficult to say which is the more accurate example of brainwashing taking place or if it can even be called brainwashing. It is more akin to the politics of influencing an others opinion. Neither side seems to be practicing any sort of honesty in what is taking place.
Are we capable of assessing the issues from a more balanced perspective then lumping the blame on just one side or the other? I was hoping that a sort of breaking the ice with examples might lubricate the thought processes of others to present further examples and discuss the questions raised from a more balanced perspective.