Sometimes you just want to scream that at people.  Call them out for the B.S. that they are feeding you.  You know it's bunk, but how do you confirm that?  How can you make them realize that they are not telling the truth?

Truth Is Everything

Knowing the truth is useful in all areas of your life.  Knowing when to believe the used car salesman.  Understanding when your kids are not being honest.  Detecting deception of an employee.  Seeing through the lies of politicians...

Knowing when you are being fed B.S. is a powerful skill.  Reading faces. Body language. Spotting nervousness.  These are all techniques that have been promoted as being reliable "B.S. meters", but they don't work as well as you may think.  Some people are just pros at feeding you a line of B.S.  In fact, the real pros actually believe their own B.S.  Those are the truly dangerous ones.

Is there a better way to identify a liar?

In this article from Get Pocket, The Best and Worst Ways To Spot A Liar, there is a great discussion of ways that work, and those that don't, in detecting lies.  It's worth a read, because it will quickly provide you with some easy tools to cut through the B.S. that we face everyday. 

This simple technique is very powerful and it can help you spot a liar, not just in your own conversation, but from conversations of...

What is propaganda?

Is there propaganda in the USA today?

That's are very important questions today.  Why? Perhaps because we in the USA are being exposed to far more propaganda than we realize.  Propaganda about infectious diseases.  Propaganda about the economy.  Propaganda about various careers.  Propaganda about countries. Propaganda about health. Propaganda about ourselves.

What's the problem with propaganda?

It's simple. Let's first look at the purpose of propaganda. 

The spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.   - Merriam-Webster Dictionary

One way to look at propaganda is this:  If what is being stated is truth, then it's not propaganda.  If it's the promotion of an idea that isn't true, but people are trying to make it seem true, then it's propaganda.

When we are inundated with propaganda, a few things start to happen.  First, we lose the ability to distinguish reality from artificial or malevolent messaging. Repetition of the message makes the audience believe it is true.  We lose our ability to witness various view points, consider each of them,  think clearly and then make our own decisions. With propaganda, pushing a message over and over leads to a non-critical thinker to believe it is true.  Voila! ...