How impacting and linear information affects us

There are two primary types of information delivery: impacting and linear. Impacting - essentially this method bombards you with (generally) very little real information (data rather than informative messages), giving you little or no time to process what you've been hit with before clobbering you with yet more noise, words, music, photos and/or videos. This is followed by pounding you with more information and sound that may or may not be related to anything you just saw, heard or experienced. Impacting information clutters our minds with useless crap, but because it keeps impacting you relentlessly, your opportunity to respond or properly deal with these communications can result in a psychological numbness and even lethargy. Some end up feeling helpless, overwhelmed by too much incoming messages. Television works with impacting message systems: imbuing you with an entertainment program followed by commercials followed by teases for the next show followed by news headlines (stay tuned) to music videos to the news program, followed by... The more violence and shocking photos and videos use, the more the viewer is impacted. The only remedy, the only effective way to assume your personal power is to turn. it. off. Then choose wisely when you turn it back on, with a new awareness and selectivity. Radio works on a less impacting level. Linear information delivery is what you experience with this blog. Or books. Writing is most generally linear. Formats and images can be impacting, but here you are reading one word at a time (or close to it). You have the opportunity to re-read what is written; to digest, assimilate or discard the thoughts, sentiments, point of view or bias of the writer or story. In short, you can more thoughtfully take in and evaluate what comes into your mind because you are choosing what you wish to read. Internet servers, while using linear media presentations, also like to impact you with more images and stories, trying to lure you into opening a website, page, ad, story, video, whatever. To empower yourself to receive media information and experiences, it's most important to realize whether your being impacted by crap or whether you are choosing to expose yourself to messages and information. Are you showing up to gain knowledge, be entertained, bludgeoned or just pass time? Point is, you are in charge. It's up to you to pick and choose, no matter how they try to blast you with meaningless noise, images and words.

"Hate" speech

People who indulge in hate speech apparently feel they must to camouflage the lack of credible information or evidence to make their point - not to mention their logic is MIA.

They try to get us all wound up, irate and generally pissed off at someone rather than inform or empower us.

They also indulge in a lot of nasty name-calling, trying to incite us to hate whom they hate.

I've only listened to Rush Limbaugh once - and that was enough. He called - at the time - First Lady Hillary Clinton all sorts of hideously disrespectful, scathing, needlessly mean names. I'd never heard a First Lady ever called such reprehensible names, and he gave not even one sound reason for his personal attack.

I had a feeling his listeners who were addled by his emotional manipulation probably felt by the end of his tirade they hated her, too.

I'm always suspicious of people who want to - or try to - influence me to hate people. Why would they? Why should I waste any of my life's time hating? I don't want to live that way, and I guess I believe there's always something I can do about something that makes me angry.

I think people who hate feel powerless. And take their bitterness over feeling powerless out on others.

I understand how information can provoke anger, espeically if I feel helpless to do anything about what I'm hearing. It can also move me to want to take action or seek more information so I can figure out something to stop feeling helpless about whatever is upsetting me.

That's why I include so many links here - so you can find more facts for yourself, do your own research, make up your own mind and take action if you're moved to do something.

I think in many cases truth is in the mind of the beholder, but when people choose to lie and manipulate over and over in order to wield power and mold opinion based on an ideology, false promises and outright lies, it becomes a great concern for me.

Especially when they lie so cavalierly, as if no one will ever hold them accountable for their actions as they exploit innocent people and finagle the "system." These folks generally believe they are above the law - and tend to get away with a lot for a long time until karma - and their own hubris catch up with them.

Making a game of toying with the minds, hearts and lives of others is a symptom of such extraordinary dysfunctional, controlling personalities.

Unfortunately, those who accept what those ill-willed manipulaters say at face value are later horrified they ever believed them to begin with. All because they believed people who did not deserve their trust.

And those who act as henchmen for those haters are usually the very people who end up bitter and angry when the truth comes out and they are exposed and remembered for the liars and criminals they really are.

There will always be some who want to walk in lock step with those who foment hatred for any reason, be it bigotry, political gain, money, profit, power, control, or some gain that is not earned but stolen.

Those who do that work from a basis of fear. They are frightened little people, terrified someone will discover who they really are inside - and what motivates them.

They are frequently blinded by some sort of greed - be it fame, money, power, an ideology. They snort and carry on, usually loudly, bullying others to distract anyone from getting personal or close enough to discover who they really are. Scared. Pathetic. Sad.

I'd feel badly for them if they weren't so incredibly destructive - whether they're the out of control temperamental bosses or the shock jocks who need to dominate others to feel powerful.

History is full of them - and all it takes to stop them is someone standing up to them.

Asking them why they yell.

Why they have the need to hurt and hate.

Senator Joseph McCarthy is a good example. A drinking alcoholic throughout his years in congress, he died hopelessly alcoholic after wrecking havoc in the lives of thousands upon thousands of innocent Americans because he had the innate need to feel powerful by inciting fear and hatred instead of seeking truth and justice.

Some history re-writers and politcal manipulaters trying to create hate have actually "found the light" - by being exposed or because they found they could not live with themselves and written books in which they confessed their illegal or (very) dirty politics.

In the end, it is perhaps not so much the hate monger but the stander-by who allows these campaigns to get out of hand.

Martin Luther King Jr. said that it would not be the enemies who foster hatred we remember with regret, but all those who stood at the sidelines in the presence of injustice and did nothing.