Worthington, Clint (February 6, 2020). "Film Review: Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made Is Deliciously Deadpan Disney". Consequence . Retrieved June 6, 2022. In a November 2006 Vanity Fair article, Richard Perle used the phrase to refer to the Iraq War, claiming that "mistakes were made, and I want to be very clear on this: They were not made by neoconservatives, who had almost no voice in what happened, and certainly almost no voice in what happened after the downfall of the regime in Baghdad." [14] There are other instances that technically count as active voice but nonetheless use language that dissociates the performer from the action being performed. Other areas for which dissonance and obstinate self-justification are problematic include law enforcement (that could results in false confessions and wrong criminal prosecution), relationships (leading to nasty quarrels and divorce) and conflicts (to extremes of torture and war crimes). The storyline was generally

Nottinghamshire police and crime commissioner’s response to the recommendations in “Mistakes were made” ( PDF document) He was a cool dude, and the ladies loved him. But even the Fonz had a hard time admitting when he was wr… wr… wrong. President Richard Nixon and his spokesman Ron Ziegler popularized the phrase during the “ third rate burglary” that became the Watergate scandal. Thompson, Catherine (November 19, 2014). "CNN Host To Accuser: Why Didn't You Bite Cosby's Penis To End Rape?". Talking Points Memo . Retrieved January 25, 2016.Basically, the reasoning parts of our brain shut down when confronted with “dissonant” information, and the emotion circuits light up. "These mechanisms provide a neurological basis for the observation that once our minds are made up, it is hard to change them." Education isn't entirely futile, though. First, if we can educate people before they've formed their opinions on the subject, that will have a dramatic difference. Second, a large-scale, concerted education effort can change some minds. This can lead to changes of the intellectual environment that can persuade others via non-rational means. Smokers in the 1940s didn't understand the link between smoking and lung cancer. Almost every smoker today does understand this link (although they smoke anyway, exercising ample self-justification). But we've managed to convince enough people that the society in the US has changed, and smoking is much less accepted (and as a result much less common). i would urge strenuously against using terms like ‘purebloods.’ it’s inflammatory language, divisive, and hearkens to a lot of bad history. Then came the request from the poet Margaret Anna Alice for a creative collaboration. Would I read her poem, along with a few kindreds, and have a recorded discussion about it afterwards? Art is a powerful tool and one I had not yet tried. I decided to accept. Explanation apology—when a person accused of wrongdoing offers an apology that is merely a gesture that is meant to counter an accusation of wrongdoing. In fact, it may be used to defend the actions of the accused

Siegel, Tatiana (December 4, 2019). "Sundance Unveils Female-Powered Lineup Featuring Taylor Swift, Gloria Steinem, Abortion Road Trip Drama". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved December 4, 2019. The context was the Iran-Contra scandal. After his underlings took the fall for the scandal, it got to where he had to finally make some changes in staff and policy. But of course he wouldn't say he was culpable, wouldn't say he had made any mistake. Thus the anonymous passive voice so nauseatingly resurrected by Gonzales most recently, and his boss before him. Parent blaming" - a convenient form of self-justification; it allows people to live with regrets or mistakes because all the mistakes were made "by them."

Lodge, Guy (January 26, 2020). " 'Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made': Film Review". Variety . Retrieved January 27, 2020. Although it superficially admits error, “mistakes were made” simultaneously tries to distance the speaker and their administration from direct blame. Children under five have trouble differentiating between things they have heard and things they have actually experienced; in adulthood, we tend to forget details as years go by, so we wind up with a related problem of being unable to distinguish reality from our fantasized or chosen narratives. This is most apparent when comparing relationship narratives between happy couples and divorcing couples. Memories create our stories, but our stories also create our memories. Once we have a narrative, we shape our memories to fit into it and assemble as mosaic form .

I'm sorry you feel that way" redirects here. For the stand-up comedy film by Bill Burr, see I'm Sorry You Feel That Way. It is extraordinary to think that just a few years ago that would have caused a major stir in academia; today it is swept under the carpet of oblivion where wilful blindness takes effect. Margaret, I’d like to reciprocate and complement you on your brilliant writing and on a very powerful poem. It would be my honour to collaborate in bringing a video to light.” Fisher, Roger; Ury, William L. (1991). Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. New York: Penguin Book. ISBN 9780140157352. OCLC 24318769. Under other circumstances, in a compressed time frame of interrogation, but according to a similar mental process, some people confess to crimes they did not commit.When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup―it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom―the hot, older woman Cassie slept with. She used a lot of logical fallacies. Her pet metaphor of the "pyramid" is just another version of the slippery slope fallacy. And she heavily relied on either-or logic to support her claims. When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with. School culture is especially bent toward avoiding mistakes. "The culture of classrooms and schools is developed slowly over time," says Donaldson Gramling. "The teachers' responses to mistakes contribute to the classroom culture; students are keenly aware of what is tolerated and what is unacceptable. Despite the rhetoric around mistakes being necessary for learning, I think it is rare that you truly see mistakes embraced and celebrated as learning opportunities." The passive voice gets called out on occasion as a tool for expressing the avoidance of responsibility, like when one says “Mistakes were made” rather than “We made some mistakes.” Sometimes, as in our Elm Street example, it is criticized for placing what appears to be a burden of responsibility on the person who receives the action (i.e., the victim) rather than the person who performs it.

one does not reclaim the world from propogandists by aping their tactics to engage in counter propaganda.

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I think social sciences are critical, but social science is often methodologically weak and overly speculative in its interpretation of results. I don't want to fault the authors too hard for their cursory presentation of "evidence" and descriptions of studies, but it was frustrating for me. They give just enough details that, if you're well versed in probability or logic, you can see a million ways that the study they just mentioned could easily be flawed into being meaningless or not generalizable. Or that their interpretation of the study must rest on details that they did not share, because what they shared does not support their interpretation.