Structured Thought . ORG

I sent the following e-mail to MiCAUSE via the contact address posted on their site (info@micause.com). I urge every supporter of Proposal 2 to do something similar, but not to gloat. I urge you to do this because it is right to tell this group that we called their bluff, that we were informed enough to see through their lies, and show them that Michigan voters will not tolerate the causes of ignorance.

I was elated this morning to see that Michigan’s Proposal 2 passed, despite your organization’s efforts to stop it through deceit, race-baiting, and flat-out lies. Though, it does sadden me that it passed by such a thin margin, which shows that my work toward educating people against ignorance such as that forwarded by your organization is just now getting started.

Ignorance is a terrible thing.

Witnessing ignorance in action is a painful experience.

Forwarding and furthering ignorance is unconscionable.

Your continual campaign of spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt (what we call in the technology world “FUD”) has shown that, even though you were already aware that the majority of Michigan residents felt that Proposal 2 was right, you simply could not fathom the concept of being proven wrong.

You accuse us of promoting human cloning. A lie.

You accuse us of attempting to create human-animal hybrids. Another lie.

You accuse us of creating additional tax burden on an already overburdened population. Yet another lie.

Finally, you accuse us of being racists. Not only a lie, but offensive and simply childish. If you want to see what race-baiting creates, simply research Cynthia McKinney and her security situation, or (for a more local flair) some of Kwame Kilpatrick’s speeches after his indictment. You are no better than these two, and many others that abuse race issues.

I’m glad to see that a majority of Michigan voters were able to see through your lies and smokescreens to the truth.

I hope that if, at any time, any of your members find themselves in need of any treatment derived from embryonic stem cell research, that they refuse it and live with the consequences. This is the only way to show that you, as an organization, REALLY believe in everything you have said during this election season. By accepting any treatment based upon research legalized by Proposal 2, you show that you truly are what everyone believes you are: Liars and opportunists of the worst kind.

Thank you for showing me how truly informed I can be.

So, MiCAUSE is at it yet again. Their fifth (and hopefully final) ad is a quick little primer in the ideas of semantics an context. Unfortunately, they are failing to understand that they are killing their own cause by quoting out-of-context statements and trying to relate them to the current proposal.

The REAL Bull:

This new ad starts by showing a few animals and stating that they are not their common name (cat, for example), but another name (feline). It does this with the cat and a pig (swine), with a segue into a quote from the director of the organization sponsoring proposal 2, which states: “… embryonic stem cell research … should be publicly funded”. I took a moment to listen to MiCAUSE’s audio evidence of this, and yes, it’s true, he does say that. But the recording is so tightly clipped at the beginning and end that we have no idea in what context he is speaking. The words literally start and end exactly as the quote I copied here. I’ll get back to this in a moment.

After showing this statement, the ad equates an out-of-context statement from over a month ago with the current text of the proposal, effectively accusing the proposal 2 proponents of lying about the tax burden contained in the proposal. Again, if you haven’t read it before, read it again in my first post about this issue. The proposal is very clear in its complete and utter lack of addition of funds to current research.

The fact that the chairperson for Proposal 2 believes that embryonic stem cell research should be funded publicly has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the content of the proposal. I repeat, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. There is no provision in Proposal 2 for the addition of public funds for stem cell (embryonic, or otherwise) research. ABSOLUTELY NONE. That’s right, I’m saying it again. NO ADDITIONAL TAX BURDEN.

Now, back to the context from which the quote in the ad was taken. What question was the chairperson asked? Was he asked flatly “Do you believe stem cell research (embryonic, or otherwise) should be publicly or privately funded?” Was he asked “Will proposal 2 increase public funding for stem cell research?” Was he asked to clarify his statement in the context of proposal 2? We don’t know. I haven’t been able to find the original recording anywhere at this point. If I do, I’ll be sure to update this post with it.

By not providing voters with the context in which the statement was made, they are able to make it say whatever they want. What is the rest of the story, MiCAUSE? What was said before or after that statement? What was the question? We know you won’t publish the rest because it’s very strongly possible that the context of the statement completely negates your point. By completely eliminating context, you put your own credibility at risk.

Of course, that’s assuming that there was any to begin with.

UPDATE: I was, sadly, wrong. There is another, even worse ad out now. I will have to dissect this one tomorrow, as I don’t have the time or the strength to sift through the amount of ridiculousness in the ad at this time.

See what I did there? Yeah, I know. Genius.

On to real content: Yesterday, I was treated to a new ad by our wonderful friends at MiCAUSE, the group that is trying to stop Michigan’s proposal 2 (allowing existing stem cell research to use to-be-discarded embryos as stem cell sources) from passing. The group has resorted to tactics that amount to nothing more than spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt), a practice well-understood in the tech community.

Something I didn’t mention in my last article about MiCause (MiCAUSE Thinks You’re an Idiot) is the reasoning behind the use of FUD. People/companies/organizations typically resort to FUD when all other avenues have been closed, and they realize that they are fighting from the inferior position. My guess is, MiCAUSE has come to the conclusion that they are fighting a losing battle, and possibly that they’re on the wrong side of the argument. Since all tactics have been used up, they have resorted to playing on the fears and abhorrences of Michigan citizens in a last-ditch effort to win voters to their side. Unfortunately for them, those of us with a reasonable amount of intelligence see right through their attempts, and feel it is our duty to inform others of the unconscionable things these groups are doing to further their (arguably incorrect) cause.

As an example of this, I bring to you the latest ad by MiCAUSE, which compares Proposal 2 to the Tuskegee experiments:

So here we have a voiceover that talks about the dangers of “unrestricted scientific research”, while showing pictures and news clippings related to the Tuskegee experiments that lasted from the 1940s to the early 1970s. The experiment took 400 African American sharecroppers that had been infected with the disease and studied the effects when left untreated. This was an unbelievable abuse that was fortunately (though not soon enough) shut down, and led to the creation of informed consent and other patient rights laws.

The ad also states that the proposal allows for “unregulated scientific experimentation on live human embryos”, which is a complete fabrication, and should get them strung up for libel. Proposal 2 simply allows the addition of embryonic stem cells harvested from to-be-disposed lab-created embryos that were created for the purpose of in-vitro fertilization to the available stock of stem cell lines.

Read that (and the proposal) again.

Proposal 2 does NOT allow for ”unregulated scientific experimentation on live human embryos”. In fact, the proposal does not allow for any type of experimentation to be performed on embryos at all. The ONLY thing the proposal allows for is the use of stem cells from to-be-discarded embryos that were originally created for the purposes of IVF.

Read that (and the proposal) again.

I feel like I’m repeating myself (and I am, purposefully), but I can’t stress enough the REAL details of the proposal, and the outright lies being propagated by MiCAUSE.

I haven’t even addressed the racial implications of this new ad which are, frankly, horrifying to me. The ad blatantly plays the race card on an issue that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with race. In a roundabout and underhanded way, they are equating scientists with hate groups.

I consider myself a color-blind person when it comes to people. I don’t care if your skin is white, green, yellow, black, red, orange, or purple. All I see is a person. Coming from this angle, there is nothing more insulting to me than to be accused of racism. It is also my opinion that those who make baseless accusations of racism are just as bad as, if not worse than those who are actually racist. At least truly racist people are honest, which is more than I can say for MiCAUSE. Look up the term racebaiting, I think you’ll see that it applies to this situation quite nicely.

So, to conclude: MiCAUSE not only thinks you’re stupid, they also believe that supporters of Proposal 2 are racists who want to kill babies. They spread FUD because they know they are fighting from an indefensible position and anyone with even a shred of logical thinking ability can see right through their arguments.

Again, when making decisions concerning legislation, don’t simply take my (or anyone else’s) word at face value. Do your research. Investigate both sides of the argument. Come to your own conclusion. This is how a democratic society works.