Election 2012 - Perception vs. Manipulation!

At the risk of favoring one pundit over another, I thought last Friday’s (10-05-12) segment of “New Rules” on HBO’S Real Time with Bill Maher provided an excellent analysis of reality versus perception (I know many on the political right cannot stand Bill Maher). If you count yourself among the number who cannot tolerate Maher’s take on society, politics, and personal observations for more than a few minutes, I have taken the liberty of clipping the more irrelevant parts of his weekly “New Rules” monologue and posting the more relevant portion where Bill Maher gives an insightful clarification of the economy…a reality presented by one side in the current election discourse.

I’ve also taken the liberty of posting President Obama’s newest campaign ad satirizing former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s declaration that he would cut federal subsidies to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), potentially affecting the noncommercial network’s hallmark long-running children’s “Sesame Street.” Granted, Obama’s attack ad is a little over-the-top, it’s also a tragically funny-as-hell illustration in how far political campaigns go to manipulate the public perceptions to the point of the effectiveness we see in Maher’s observations (and how many people embrace the negative).

As I have reiterated so many times before on my blog, people...take the time to actually read, research, and actively think about how you perceive reality, not how your beliefs influence how you perceive it. Take the time to measure whether your beliefs and your experiences are in-synch with the way the world operates. Questions perceptions and propaganda, not embrace them.  In other words, use your heads, not your hearts or emotions!