Pride, Ego and Ethos

Let's talk about ego. They say pride is the universal sin and that pride has many faces. Vanity and arrogance are two of the ugly faces of pride. Pride as in self respect is not a sin. Which brings us to ego. The egotistical and the ego maniac. Whenever we talk about these ideas it's almost always in the third person pointing the finger at others. It's rarely a form of self reflection and self audit. 

Some people like to argue. They like to hear themselves talk. They like to belittle others and prove them wrong. We have seen that belittling others in an attempt to boost one's ego is always self defeating. We can never build a healthy self image by tearing others down. When we lift others, we lift ourselves. 

Recently an antisemitic troll accused me of never admitting when I'm wrong. Sometimes when people argue, they don't like to admit when they are wrong. I'm blogging it's very different. If I post something that's false and I don't maker a retraction, I could get sued. Everyone has strength's and weaknesses. I'm not that guy that always has to be right. 

I always say if I'm right, I'm right and if I'm wrong I'm wrong. It's not about who's right or wrong, it's about what's right or wrong. I don't have a problem admitting when I'm wrong. The problem is, there is so much disinformation out there, when you are right there are a million trolls in your face telling you, you're wrong. God help you if you dare disagree with the narrative. 

Candace Owens once said all Jews are pedophiles. I said that's ridiculous and racist. My inability to agree with her on that doesn't mean I'm unable to admit when I'm wrong. It means that's a pretty abominable statement. 

Netanyahu is a bad man. To say all Jews are bad because Netanyahu is bad would be false. The troll claimed that there is an overwhelming percent of Jews in Israel that support Netanyahu. I disagree with that. I think that statemen is arguable. It's like claiming an overwhelming number of Americans support Donald Trump. Since when has an overwhelming number of Americans supported any US president? It's almost always a very vocal 51%. 

When Trump was elected in his second term he flipped and split MAGA. It wasn't just Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. There a whole list of people who supported Trump in his second term who no longer support him now. So to say an overwhelming number of American now support Donald Trump would be completely false just like claiming an overwhelming number of Jews in Israel support Netanyahu.

We also need to recognize that Netanyahu is a big fan of electronic voting and failed to prosecute that former Mossad team that were caught hacking elections all over Africa. 

I do think a disturbing number of Jews in Israel do support atrocities, but I don't think it's anywhere near 50% let alone an overwhelming majority. All the protests and general strikes in Israel is something the mainstream media won't show us. 

This really has nothing to do with my point. Ethos is a concept that comes from Aristotle. Aristotle claimed that ethos is one of the three main forms of persuasion along with pathos and logos. Pathos is emotion and logos is logic. 

I think most of us agree that people use logos or logic to persuade people to believe an argument. Sometimes that logic involves fake science. Pathos is another interesting concept. We see the fake news and the Intelligence community bombard us with emotional arguments try to convince us of a narrative. Candace Owens used to encourage us to use logic over emotion so we are not deceived by their false emotionally manipulative narrative. 

Ethos is what Aristotle referred to as the third form of persuasion. Ethos means character. Aristotle claimed an audience is more easily convinced if they believe the speaker is knowledgeable, virtuous, and well-intentioned. So let's talk about that. Is the person credible. If someone consistently posts false information, they lose their credibility. When I first started my blog someone in the industry claimed I would never have any credibility because I was anonymous. 

There was actually more interest when I was anonymous because people were like who is this guy? Ethos also speaks to knowledgeable. If someone is knowledgeable, people are more likely to listen to them. That's why the fake news always quotes fake experts. 

The third aspect of pathos is crucial. Is the speaker well intentioned? Are they a paid lobbyist? Do they have an ulterior motive? Aristotle broke ethos down into three categories: Phronesis (Practical Wisdom), Arete (Virtue) and Eunoia (Goodwill). Virtue means exhibiting high moral character, integrity, and honor. Goodwill means showing a benevolent attitude toward the audience, proving you have their best interests at heart.

Those are all important principles in discerning truth from error in a world of deception and fake news. Personally, I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I support the civil liberty protected by the US Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights. People have a right to hold and express different opinions. I'm simply carving out my corner where I express my opinion. People have every right to disagree with those opinions. 

That doesn't mean I'm going to give people a platform to mock me, belittle me or a platform to promote their opinions that support what I believe to be a false narrative. They're free to do that everywhere else. I'm just carving out a small corner for something else. An alternative view opposed to the one the mainstream media and the Intelligence community is bombarding us with.