“Live your own life, do your own thing, and question anyone who claims you should be doing otherwise.”
How Language is Used to Influence You and How Asking Questions Can Reveal Truth
Most statements that are presented as facts are merely opinions. They are, quite often, manipulations used to influence you.
As an exercise, question every statement that you hear or read today…
Beware of the following presumptive words that are used to influence you, or rope you into an agenda:
we, your, our, they, them
When presented with a presumptive statement, simply ask, “What facts do you have to support those opinions and beliefs?” and then question those as well.
This Socratic Method is a great way to find truth, shatter illusions, and expose deception. Asking questions is incredibly liberating. When you start asking questions, you too just might discover that “the emperor has no clothes!”
Here is an advanced application of this skill…
Never Accept the Burden of Proof
Rather than attempting to defend a position simply ask the claimant to prove theirs. This is also a powerful, self-defense strategy…
‘The onus is on he who says it is so.”
With a few simple questions, you can quite readily expose the contradictions in any presentment that is made to you.
By exposing contradictions the claimant will “fall on their own sword” and lose the argument to themself without you ever having to put forth a position. This is one of the most powerful self-defense tactics that one can use (see Luke 20:20-26; (Matthew 17:24 – 27; Adventures in Legal Land).
Here are some of my favorite questions:
Are you a peaceful person or a violent person?
Do you believe in self-ownership?
Do you believe in freedom of choice?
Do you want others to respect your life, liberty, and property?
Do you respect the life, liberty, and property of others?
Are your actions consistent with your answers to the preceding questions?
In order to find answers, you must first ask questions… question everything.
A note on the power and meaning of words:
Words are symbols that are not only used to convey ideas and concepts, but they can be used to influence or entrap you. Nevertheless, they are still just a medium and means of exchange, and they are reliant upon their mutually agreed-upon meanings and opinions.
For example, two people can agree that an object is “red” when everyone else considers it “white.”
Question the very meaning of the words being used, and know that you have the power to accept or reject those opinions.
But words, including your own, can be used as weapons against you. One must be careful with the words they choose and how they are used and defined. In fact, effective communication can be achieved without using words at all. What is left unsaid and unwritten are often more important than what is. Learn to read, speak, and communicate “between the lines.”
In summary, when someone speaks or writes words to you, they are essentially an offer to communicate with you, or an attempt to influence or entrap you, which you can choose to accept or reject.
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“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the—if he—if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement. … Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.” – Bill Clinton (statement to Grand Jury)
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I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.– Rudyard Kipling