Isn't the whole premise of the legal profession that it can nail down the meaning of words so that contracts can be freely entered into by willing participants? Yes, the legal profession does, like all things, succumb to corruption over time. But isn't it better for a society to aspire to living under the rule of contracts freely entered into? That requires that the meaning of words be precise and stable.
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Yep. Communication, and sharing of concepts work better with stable words. However, if your goal is to manipulate minds, then manipulating words is a good path to that.
Isn't it interesting how many people directing such movements actually have backgrounds as attorneys?
The legal profession is eminently susceptible to corruption. So are many other professions that we have been naively tending to trust.
Yep. The fact they barely teach critical thinking in education (even higher) these days only makes us more susceptible. It also makes propaganda much more effective.
Most people have no clue about some of the following which are in rampant use around us:
Argument from authority fallacy (aka Appeal to Authority)
Argument from popularity fallacy (aka Bandwagon)
Argument from emotion fallacy
Red Herrings (shifting the target to avoid an answer - usually then new target is something attention grabbing)
False Dichotomy / False Dilema (You are either this, or you must be that... when usually there are actually more than two choices)
Just learning those few things as a stepping stone is like getting a new prescription of eyeglasses. You suddenly see red flags in conversations all around you. You begin to see through a lot of bullshit and manipulation.
I am of the position that Critical Thinking should be taught right along with reading, writing, math, history, science, arts, etc from a very early age and it shouldn't stop being taught as you cannot master it, you can only get better at it.
If most of the population had such an education I think collectively we could solve most problems we encounter.
Critical thinking was a required course in my first year of university. I aced the course because it was already somewhat familiar to me from my last year of high school math classes.
Sadly. It is required in universities. Yet unless you get a good teacher it usually doesn't really teach it.
We have a guy here on steemit who has taught the course in college several times yet if you watch his material (generally videos) it is clear he either doesn't know it, or he is intentionally exploiting it.
The required course I had of it in college was "Public Speaking and Critical Thinking". It was a 1st year course that I didn't take until my 3rd or 4th year.
There was this professor (old guy) named T.C. Johnson and people said "Don't take the class if he teaches it, it is a nightmare class, take it from some other professor"
I took it from him. It is likely the single most important class I took in all of my college. That was largely due to him. Yes, it was brutal. Yet it opened doors in my mind that I didn't even know existed. Some of them it took me years to see.
We would give speeches. He would be actively outlining the speech as you gave it on a chalk board somewhere else in the room. When you were done he would eviscerate it using critical thinking.
He would point out the Glittering Generalities, and many more things.
I don't recall learning the appeal to authority, appeal to popularity, etc in his class or in my Arguments and Conflict Resolution class. I encountered those within the last decade or more on my own. I do remember the glittering generality though as it was something I used in my speech and was eviscerated for.
I got an A in the class. Prior to that class I was terrified of public speaking so much so that I would generally shake quite a bit. After it, it was easy. :)
EDIT: Time frame. I took that class likely in 1992 or 1993.
EDIT 2: It is also a very huge subject that takes time and practice to learn. So a single class if done correctly is just nudging the door open as far as I am concerned. We still need to step through the door and keep practicing it and getting better at it. That is not something universities really do for us. We have to choose to do so on our own.