Immigration Propaganda

Propaganda: A means of communication to tap into people's common beliefs, expectations, and philosophies on life -- propaganda is used for manipulating purposes, it effects a lot of people. In my opinion, propaganda is often used with bad intentions.

Doublespeak: A means of obstructed communication, that does not necessarily get the point across, but rather -- hide it and make it seem more appealing. An example, death can be hidden if it were to be reworded as “terminal living”; “uncontrolled cells” for cancer.

Propaganda and Doublespeak are techniques to mislead a mass of people, and assist a change -- either good or bad. Doublspeak. In these two chapters I’ve really learned that the power of language can either be used for great changes or bad ones. Great changes were made by Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth. Both black leaders were great spokespersons, and they inspired the world to really change the common ideologies of the common time. They inspired change. They used propaganda to appeal to the audience and impose their opinions.

Today; April 28, 2011 --  President Obama has announced that he will be discussing the immigration issues with celebrities -- Eva Longoria, America Ferrara, and Rosario Dawson. This sounds really ridiculous. What impact does celebrities have on this issue? Eva Longoria doesn’t have the expertise or the experience to have any use on this debate -- the only thing they are credible for is their ethnicity. This sounds a lot like propaganda -- a means of gaining an audience, to appeal to the community; especially the Hispanic community. Obama is trying to gain the Hispanic community by campaigning. The United States immigrant policy does has not been accelerated like Obama had promised when he was elected -- the policy has done little improvement if any.

I think this is a way of quieting down the enraged Hispanic community and this is Obama’s way of getting the Hispanic votes for 2012 election. This is based off on what I read from multiple articles on the web regarding the immigration reform. Personally, I am somewhat looking forward to the immigration reform because it affects me personally -- I have a lot of family and friends that are illegal immigrants. American citizens that say, “Go home, illegal citizens should not have rights, they are illegal and they should get out of our Country.” That type of mentality is unhealthy, and ignorant.

My side: illegal immigrants are essential -- they provide an essential role in the American society. How? Without illegal immigrants, sales will go up, and productivity will go down. illegal immigrants also provide diversity in our country -- as a nation that longs for diversity, why must we deny that? On the other side of the argument, people say that illegal immigrants do not pay taxes, and do not contribute enough to the tax pool; honestly, i don’t get that argument so if anyone can explain it to me, it’ll be helpful.

Obama might be hyping up his 2012 re-election by campaigning, or maybe the sarcastic tone presented by the articles is propaganda itself. We won’t know, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

The Internet is Amazing.

The function of today’s newspaper and television is to spread crucial news and to spread propaganda. I usually get my information on the Internet because personally -- I think it’s more efficient, convenient, and practical. I rarely watch the news or read the newspaper, I actually think its role in our contemporary society is diminishing. Why use other sources when you have the awesome Internet? Right lol? Despite the argument that news from television and newspapers are a dying meas of communication, it’s still a big factor in other people’s lives -- I guess the older generation (like my parents for example) can only get their information through television and the press...my parents are really computer illiterate, they wouldn’t know how to turn on a computer if I asked them to.

Most of the time, I get my notifications via friends; via facebook (haha). When I first discovered that Japan was hit by the horrific earthquake, I quickly got a rush of adrenaline and anxiety -- and  quickly called my brother that is stationed in Japan. Thankfully he was okay, and was helping out Japan the very next day (he’s doing service in the Navy). So, my main point -- there are a lot of sources you can get your information from on important news -- I prefer the Internet because the Internet community is usually quick about anything, the spread of news is instant and fast.

The reason why I prefer the Internet rather than any other source: you get to choose what you want and when you want it. This is important to me, I dislike advertisements, and all the unnecessary hype that comes with television or especially the newspapers. For example, a few days after the incident in Japan, a lot of so-called “experts” were predicting that there will be aftershocks incoming to the west -- they provided little evidence, I usually take these type of stories as “hype” and don’t pay much attention to it, I always think to myself, “they’re just trying to get more viewers”. Or maybe I'm ignorant, and i don’t really know enough about earthquakes, or maybe i just don’t want to believe it. Either way, I wasn’t convinced with the little evidence they provided, it felt like hype to me. With the proper use of the Internet, you could choose what you want to watch, and pick out what really is important to you; whether it’s a specific location of where the earthquake hit to see if your loved ones are safe or to avoid the nuisance of jargon-filled media.

Overall, I think our means of spreading crucial news globally is impressive, it has improved throughout the years with many different varieties -- TV, newspapers, Internet, the social network..etc. My personal thoughts, I think the Internet is in direct competition with the other sources and will eventually achieve dominance over the others. It’s not a bad thing -- it’s more efficient. I use the Internet for just about everything, and I think it’s one of our greatest innovations of our time.

What kind of Chinese are you?

Propaganda is the means of communication used to influence the community. Propaganda affects everyone as a whole, and can influence people on just about everything. The effects on people’s daily lives that result from propaganda can be really serious, I think it’s becoming so powerful that we have little control on freedom, and freedom of thought. It has the power to influence what we like or dislike. People often compare what they see on TV to reality. If the standard created by the media isn’t like reality, then it must be wrong. A lot of people think this way, and i really hope that people snap out of this type of mentality.

Growing up as a Chinese-Filipino in California, I experienced some stereotypes but not enough to really have a huge impact on my life...I think. Honestly, if someone were to ask me, “How has racism affected you?”. At first, I would say that racism hasn’t affected me at all. I cannot say that I have been a victim of a “hate speech”.I think part of the reason of the decline of “hate speech” in American is because Americans as a whole has improved. People who take the effort into putting people down according to the differences of other people are frowned upon by society. I never experienced a time where I have been really scared of my life because of threatening verbal abuse. I’m thankful of this. Maybe part of the gradual acceptance of diversity is part of the function of propaganda. In reality, there is however still some sorts of racism, but people would agree when I say that the world is a better place a few decades ago and maybe, the media is to get the credit for the gradual acceptance of diversity.

The gradual evolution of society has improved the state of living in America. I think people overall, feel more safe. I’m not saying that racism doesn’t exist, I just think it’s not so dominant than it was back then..from my experience anyway- I have experienced stereotypes like I noted earlier, but didn’t really take it personally. Maybe it suggests that my experiences are lacking and I have yet to see reality and I am living in a shell of innocence that has yet to been popped by the evil prejudicial attacks. But from my experiences, I have been a part of few minor incidents where most of the time, the stereotypes come in a rather light-hearted fashion and it doesn’t become too personal. For example, my friends always say, “Dude, you’re Asian! These math problems should be no problem for you!” If you haven’t heard of that stereotype...the stereotype suggests that Asians are superior in math and its innate to them. Or maybe you’ve heard, “What kind of Chinese are you?” This stereotype, i have to admit, is rather dumb and it can rub me  the wrong way but it usually does not send me to a state of anger and impulsively attack the ignorance of another person, but instead I laugh and correct them. I don’t know where people get the notion from where Asians automatically means your Chinese by default. Maybe the rise of martial artists in America, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan were all Chinese so therefore all Asians are Chinese.

No not every Asian person has to be Chinese, and not every Asian person can do back-flips. Like I said, these stereotypes do not offend me at all and I think racism won’t die as long as there is people that are not willing to accept variance and diversity. Maybe the media is partly to blame to the rise of stereotypes but it’s not as bad as it was back then.

Happiness Vs. Self-Respect

What is more important to you? Would you rather take true happiness or self-respect? To me, it sounds like a trap - aren’t they related to one another? In other words, how can you be truly happy if you don’t respect yourself? I guess, self respect is more important in this case because if you respect yourself, you are happy... right?

To fully understand something, it’s sometimes best to take the variable out. Imagine not having self-respect; what would our lives be like? Simple answer, we would be miserable. Without self-respect how would we ever stop the voices in our heads that tells us that we’re not good enough. Having self-respect means you have confidence, without confidence we won’t function very well.

I had the habit of always comparing myself to others, because I lacked confidence. Every time someone would compliment me i would say thank you, but in my thoughts, I would often disregard the compliment by saying, “You’re only saying that to be nice”. That’s how I really felt but I wouldn’t dare show it. I can say from experience that being quick to dismiss compliments lead me to a depressed state. Putting artificial doubts into my head only clouded reality, and I became mindful of this. When I became aware of my false truths that have planted in my head I learned to greatly improve my way of thinking, and thus gain a new level of respect for myself.

So basically, without a true sense of self-respect, true happiness cannot be reached. In order to be happy you must accept yourself for what you really are. Focus on your strengths and note your weaknesses, and in doing so this will ultimately reach harmony with your mind. Happiness is never permanent, it wont last forever there will always be bad times, and the best way to diminish it’s bad times is to have a level of self-respect that has the potential to really look beyond all obstacles.

I’m a firm believer that self-respect leads to confidence, and when you have confidence everything you do will be significantly be easier to do. Here is an interesting test I found online about self-respect. This quote is helpful to get a grasp of the concept of self-respect

“Consider an interesting test of self-respect. If someone compliments us, what is our reaction? If we are very pleased, it would suggest a certain amount of uncertainty about our skill. Imagine that somebody whose opinion we respect told us that we were great at spelling three-letter words, or that our pronunciation of vowels was wonderful. Chances are we would not be moved. We know we can do it in the first case, and we don't care in the second. Because we were not evaluating ourselves, the compliment was unimportant. The more instances in which we don't "take the compliment," the less vulnerable we become to evaluation and insult.”

Overall, I believe both self-respect and happiness are two things that will be always found together.