Whatcha Gonna Believe – Opinion or Information?

Differences of opinion or belief should not be confused with differences in information

Opinions and beliefs based on myth, lies, and propaganda may seem normal, correct, or even “common knowledge” and yet hold no validity.

— Caren Black, guest on Titanic Lifeboat Academy – Navigating a Path to Resilience (episode 216)

It seems to me that much of our public discourse involves throwing around a lot of opinions and beliefs as if they were backed by information. We see it in some of the comments on Peak Moment episodes. Episode 191 with Lierre Keith, The Vegetarian Myth is a prime example. People are strongly attached to their beliefs about The One Right Way to Eat, and scientific research, studies, physiology, and history be damned.

It sure muddles up the conversation, be it in politics or economics or health. Surely much of it is intentional obfuscation: keep the public from knowing what’s so, keep ‘em pacified, and carry on to your advantage. It gets tougher to weed the noise out from the facts. I’m thankful for people and media who work hard to give us accurate information, and those whose well-tuned antennas filter out noise from information. Thanks Bill Moyer and Carolyn Baker.

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About Janaia

Janaia Donaldson is the host and producer of Peak Moment TV. After her peak oil a-ha moment in 2005, she co-founded Alliance for a Post Petroleum Local Economy (APPLE of Nevada County, CA). She has worked as a graphic designer, illustrator, and educator; and a user interface designer at Xerox.

Comments

  1. janetswanson says:

    Hi Janaia–I didn’t know how to get in touch with you. I was a student of yours many many years ago. You may remember me from your third or fourth class at Cubberly. I was also good friends with Christina and Gregor Nelson and Gail Blackmarr (who send their love). I kept at it for 15 productive years at IDG.

    Anyways I am on a new pursuit, and wanted to get in touch with you. I saw you on late night television as feminist food advocate. Who would have thought ? Well, I am approaching the world as a water awareness “goddess”. Not really me, I am just trying to draw attention to the issues Wallace Stegner has put into our collective consciousness through his memoir “A Sense of Place”

    I have this book in audio format digially remastered from cassette and available on CD or DVD. I am doing this at my own expense. It is my belief that every person who drinks or using water in the state of California should read or listen to Mr. Stegner’s account of how his west was won. It also included “The Wilderness Letter, 1959″.

    I think it is an important account of the more recent immigrant, from the Canadian Plains and it is closley alligned to that of Neil Youngs’ journey, missing only by ten years. Mr. Stegner points out that the biggest problem facing the lower 48 is WATER. My point is that California doesn’t have WATER problem, Califonia has a problem with Los Angeles and Arizona. It is not our toilets and showers that are at fault, it is ridculous landscaping, open air viaducts and wasteful verdant ariation of farmlands. I think that the films “Who Shot Roger Rabbit ?” and “Chinatown” should be viewed where age appropriate. I think Mr. Stegner’s book should be made part of the California State High School Curriculum required reading, in its original, no abridged copies allowed.

    So, to that end, where would you like your copy sent and do you want DVD or CD or both and will you please keep your copies as masters and make copies for as many as your friends as possible, maybe as a kind of cottage chainletter Christmas Gift. What say you ? thanks so much, all my love,

    janet

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