Hitler's Testicles and Palin's Death Panels

Did you know that Adolf Hitler had three testicles?

You didn't? Well, you are right. That is just an urban legend -- one that I have just created.

In fact, if anyone tells you that Hitler had three testicles, they are either misinformed or they are lying.

Why am I mentioning Hitler's three testicles to you right now? Because by mentioning the myth of his three testicles, and debunking that same myth, I am actually increasing the odds that some time in the future you will mistakenly believe that Hitler really did have excess, um, baggage.

Behavioral scientists have discovered that familiarity breeds belief. In research studies, they have exposed people to series of true and false messages, telling people at the same time which of those messages were true or false. Later, they exposed people to these same messages, and asked them whether they thought the messages were true or false. They found that previous exposure to these messages increased the number of people who believed these messages were true, even the messages that had been identified as false.

How does this happen? People remember hearing the message ("Hmmm, three testicles, that sounds familiar"), but forget learning that the message was false.

Therein lies the brilliance of Sarah Palin's death panels. Having heard this rumor countless times now, casual observers of politics (a.k.a. the majority of the American public) will come to believe that the rumor is true.

Lying, unfortunately, can be smart politics. And countering those lies by pointing out their falseness -- that won't be enough, if we believe what behavioral scientists have learned.

Proponents of health care reform must not only debunk these myths, they must also create powerful images to counter those myths -- images of how health care reform would improve people's lives. Images that can compete, if not with extra testicles, then at least with Sarah Palin's face book page.

To learn more about my new book, Free Market Madness, check out my website: http://www.peterubel.com/.

Comments

[mariaf]

The comments I have read are all just all a bunch of people dont have anything to do like self at home and they just sit in front of the gossip tube and write a bunch of hateful things about people , some are predicting people's death I wonder if they are predicting their's , and I wonder if they came to be here until the axis of this planet stop spinning, I dont think so.Some of them have a big mouth and thinks that they hold the earth in the palm of their hand, so they can hate every race of people except their own , some of these big mouth need to get the spell cast on them from riches to rags again, and that would put them straight.

[Zoica]

My American History teacher in highschool told my class that the biggest weapon that Hitler used was telling lies and repeating them.
"If you tell a lie loud enough and long enough, people will start to believe you."
I remember this lesson very well, and so should every American. Sarah Palin isn't the only one who uses this Nazi tactic...s­o did George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, et. al. It's about time Real Americans recognize Nazi tactics when they see them.

[S1m0n]

We saw this a lot during the primary. Bill would say something one day and retract it the next, knowing that all this did was to get his dogwhistle slur into the media for another news cycle.

[angiemomma]

I've heard about "Death Panels" for two weeks now and I still know it's ridiculous republican propaganda.

[2008CaliforniaFan]

The next time Palin tries to spin her Lies with her Facebook rants go to this New Twitter account that was set up to debunk them. You can become a Follower and also post information as per an earlier Tweet posted there.
----------­----------­----------­----------­-
Send links for videos, articles, news, commentary,etc to: [e-mail] - Also direct questions and feedback to that account. THANKS22 minutes ago from web

http://twitter.com/palintruthwatch

[BrighterStar]

So called death panels will be in our future if Obama gets his way on healthcare. If government pays for healthcare there must be some limit set on the extent of care covered. Obama himself has already said some people should be given pain pills instead of life saving operations.

[TRYKER]

I think you are talking about Hospice Care for terminal patients. Have you read anything about the tremendous charges that are wracked up in for-profit hospitals that go overboard with expensive surgeries and life-support on people whose living wills specified DNR but were ignored?

[Regina Palingates]

In England they say he had only one testicle..­.

[BachelorJohnnyCool]

Goering had two, but they were very small...

[nervousexpat]

I always heard that he had one undescended testicle

[ClarkNova]

One of them was atrophied and reabsorbed due to a severe attack of mumps.

[Libbydoe]

I always heard that he only had one as well. See how easy it is to deseminate (pun intended) incorrect information.

[mychagall]

Unfortunately there are so many people out there who are as stupid as Sarah Palin. What do you expect, really?

[aloha43]

Exactly!

[BrighterStar]

Or maybe Palin is the smart one and those who disagree with her are the dumb ones.

[2008CaliforniaFan]

{ Katie Couric }

What papers do you read....?

Was the question too tough.... cmon. A 6th grader could answer that.

[sasidechick]

yea--the woman who went to six colleges in six years for a four-year degree....­in journalism no less....wh­o can't complete a sentence with a subject and a verb.

She is SO much smarter than the rest of us.

[BLGould]

Brilliant example of how our minds work when we're trying NOT to think of ELEPHANTS! Unfortunately, the "elephants" have a long history of hiring such master manipulators as Dr. G. Clotaire Rapaille, who said "I don't care what you're going to tell me intellectually. I don't care. Give me the reptilian. Why? Because the reptilian always wins."

Dr. Rapaille understands the many-layered onion of our minds and that the most influential is that core mind; the reptile. Appropriate, is it not? Our reptile minds being seduced by reptiles like Sarah Palin. SAY! Could you start a meme that she's a Voodoo Priestess? I mean, look at that creepy ceremony with her African shaman! Voodoo Priestess reviving Voodoo Economics! It's perfect!

Anyway, thanks for a most illuminating example of how it's done and for tying it into the whole Nazi/Hitler crap. My frontal lobe thanks you.

[ClarkNova]

That would be a terrible slap in the face to voodoo priestesses.

[Freesia2]

Yep. Reasonableness and a calm rebuttal won't work with this. We have to always remember that the people who listen to a Palin are the same people that got Bush elected. Twice. It's not hard to fool them.

And thank you Mr. Ubel for cleverly tying in the Hitler reference. Everytime I've heard one of her zombies hollering out "Nazi!" I always think they're screaming about the wrong person. Hitler would have liked Palin. Her ability to shamelessly race bait. Her absolute joy in whipping crowds into a froth of rage. Her absolute certainty that she is somehow special and watching a country torn apart is a mark of accomplishment no matter who gets hurt. Adolph would have liked the failed governor of Alaska. He'd have understood exactly what she's up to. He also would have laughed at her tying in of a religion she doesn't actually practice. Being an atheist himself, he'd have thought she was really playing a good joke on the church.

Good article. Oh and I don't believe he had 3 ....jewels­. You can't fool me. ;-)

.

[Hammerofthor]

What's good about it? And what is original? Hitler this, Hitler that, for the last 75 years.

[aloha43]

It's a great article!

It explains how the uneducated American people can believe anything they want to believe, whether it is truth or not.

[blisster]

You have to read and comment on any article headline that contains, Hitler's testicles and Sarah Palin in the headline.
I couldn't wait to find out, what was the correlation. Did she have a brownshirt hackysack fixation, had Todd gotten a new, hard to be seen tattoo or had she obtained the Furher's jewels on e-bay and had them preserved in an old Scope bottle in her medicine chest?
I must say I was a little disappointed. It was not as tabloidy as I would have hoped.
I do agree with the author's premise, although the words Palin and brillance should not be used in the same sentence unless it's an example of the antithesis of the word brillance or the description of a shiny object that caught the attention of her avian brain.

[Freesia2]

lol

Irresistable wasn't it?

[COPerez]

I couldn't help it... I HAD to click through.