UFO, Cults and US

Of all the chapters thus far, I found this one to be the most interesting. I found that I could relate to all of the topics and ideas mentioned. The section that really hit home with me was the idea that your emotions can play a bigger role in decision making than logic. I am an emotional person, and I can say that I will follow my emotions 70 percent of the time over logic. When I reason with myself, I tend to over analyze and over think. When I let my emotions decide for me, I usually do what will make me the happiest. I never realized that I did such a thing until reading this chapter. I also thought the section about political parties was really cool. I am not a registered Democrat, but I tend to find myself following their views. After reading the part about people falling for stereotypes about which programs each party is for or against was eye opening for me because I tend to do that as well. I find myself believing Democrats when they say Republicans are against a certain program or fund and denying when Republicans say Democrats are against something "good" or for something "bad." Because I am not a typically political person, I need to discover for myself which party stands for what. I cannot always fall for political propaganda. Another thing that I found to be rather interesting was the idea that people who feel as if their positions are weak, will fight tooth and nail to support them. This theory fascinates me because I find it to be quite true. I know a countless number of people that will tell you UFOs are real simply because people try to prove them wrong. This chapter was really insightful because of the numerous topics covered and ideas mentioned. I actually learned a lot from this one.

From snake oil to emu oil

The chapter "From snake oil to emu oil" was actually really interesting. I am always second quessing information and advertisments and rarely believe anything. The sections on diet pills and beauty aids really hit home with me because my best friend is basically an addict. She buys the most expensive wrinkle creams at 20 years old and all sorts of flashy beauty products that push never ending amazing results. I have to confess that there are times when I wanted to buy a product because of adverstising and sometimes I did. Usually, I just check with people who have used it already. Advertisments are all around us and it is actually pretty cool to take a deeper look at them and realize that amount of deception that they can contain. I was just about to make myslef some tea when I noticed the box. It read :"Now made with even more antioxidants!" I wouldn't have thought twice about that statement if it wasn't for this chapter. I thought: "More antioxidants? How do you add antioxidants to tea? More than when? How much more?" I couldn't stop asking myself questions about the tea. Like I said, I always second guess new wave products, but after this chapter I am even starting to second quess products I use and love. Anyway, I thought that the chapter was a really interesting way to talk about decption. All of the examples were really helpful. Most of the time, I'm a fact checker so this chapter was right up my ally.