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And that's the way it is

Friends,
Word selection influences how we process information. Consider these two sentences:
  • To date, over 30,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza according to the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry, in response to the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel, many of them children, and took 250 men, women and children hostage.
  • Following the Hamas incursion, which according to Israeli authorities killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages, Israeli soldiers have killed over 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, many of them women and children.
Both stories are factually correct, laying out the same sad facts, statistics and sequence of events, but the language used in each leaves us with a different feeling. We may not notice it, but the carefully curated images and narratives presented to us every day on all manner of subjects help demonize —or normalize— actions and behaviors. What you believe often comes down to how things are framed for you and where your biases lie —biases built up over years of conditioning. For instance, did you know an "unhealthy" Krispy Kreme glazed donut has 190 calories... you could have 10 of those in a day and still not go over the 2,000 calorie diet (then again that may just be my biases framing it up for you).
Happy Good Friday!

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