Crafting Facts for Fun and Profit

Ever notice that every single bit of information that is presented to you as fact is intended to sell something? Who am I kidding? Of course you have. Think about it now though, EVERYTHING is crafted to persuade you to buy something. The most obvious, of course, are products. The not-so-obvious (sometimes very obvious as well) are ideas, concepts, and viewpoints that someone is trying to sell.

This sort of manipulation is human nature (the fundamentals of it are, the extremes—blatant lies—of course, are not). We all want people to see things the way we see things. We want people to agree with us, assuming we agree with ourselves (meaning, what we want people to agree with, we believe wholeheartedly ourselves).

There are certain facts that are not necessarily intended to sell, like 2+2=4 for example. Or a statement by the weather service that it is such and such degrees cold or hot outside. Or that you are going 120 km an hour, or there are 25 more miles to go to get to your destination. These examples are just information. Of course, there are times when even these sorts of “non-controlling facts” are indeed intended to control, and sell.