Call me hard hearted, but I am increasingly annoyed by those using emotional images and sounds to get me to do or not do something. Many, many years ago when I was riding the New York subway, we riders were confronted by a crying baby. I saw myself and others getting increasingly agitated and tried to understand why. I concluded that this angst has been built into our genes from a long time past. When humans were clans living in caves, children were the future of the clan .... meaning it was to every one's long-term survival interest to be concerned if a child was distressed ... so the whole clan responded.
This tropism is clearly used by opinion shapers in our current media. Today I saw a political ad against Trump's immigration policies which included message text and no sound but a crying baby. In the above context, this sappy appeal didn't get my sympathy, it only pissed me off. Just as other heart-strung strumming ads that show shivering (in the winter) or sweltering (in the summer) dogs ... asking for ASPCA donations ... or "starving" holocaust survivors ... or crippled children ... or etc. piss me off ... not that these sufferings don't exist ... . but that they are being exploited for gain to others than these sufferers. (The ASPCA had to put that dog out in the freezing cold in order to get it to shiver.)
I guess Democrats really are a party of the heart and Republicans, of the head. All I ask from the phony lefties and charities is to stop using emotional images and sounds to get what they want. Appeal to my logic for a change. It is clearly less exploitative.
