Week 4, DQ3: When Should You Be Suspicious???

Thinking critically does not mean that we walk around with a snarl, eager to pounce on and attack every utterance heard or sentence read. At the same time, however, we must be vigilant in a world where both persuasion and manipulation are used, with great effect, to unlawfully or unethically take our time and treasure and even our lives. To wit:

The ongoing financial crisis of 2008,

the charge and ultimately futile search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,

1950s ads for cigarettes as being good for your "T-zone" (throat and esophagus),

an infinite number of ads for food products that taste good but have little or no nutritional value,

the corresponding paucity of ads or information about the pervasiveness of sugar and high fructose corn...