Word: truthful
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...runs entirely off the rails as Stein argues that there is a clear line from Darwinism to euthanasia, abortion, eugenics and--wait for it--Nazism. Theories of natural selection, it's claimed, were a necessary if not sufficient condition for Hitler's killing machine to get started. The truth, of course, is that the only necessary and sufficient condition for human beings to murder one another is the simple fact of being human. We've always been a lustily fratricidal species, one that needed no Charles Darwin to goad us into millenniums of self-slaughter...
...truth is, of course, that 1.4% to 1.6% of DNA and millions of years of evolution equals an evolutionary ocean. Even the most liberated humans would hesitate to have sex in front of complete strangers. And bonobos aren't likely to harness fire or invent the wheel or the Internet soon. Still, for too long the study of nature has been the study of zero-sum savagery--a universal bloodlust that allows us to shrug at our own brutality, reckoning that mere animals like us can hardly be expected to do better. Discovering such close genetic cousins who behave themselves...
Even on less uplifting reality shows, the language of therapy is pervasive. Fox's lie-detector show, The Moment of Truth--in which players reveal hurtful secrets for money--is exploitative, garish and excruciating. But it is also essentially Dr. Phil in game-show form. Like a self-help talk show, Truth brings in family members to air dirty laundry, aiming for confrontation and catharsis. For every awful disclosure (a woman admits to having cheated on her husband), there's a sentimental moment (a father offers to become a bigger part of a grown child's life...
...doubtful that The Moment of Truth actually helps anyone (though the payouts could buy a lot of psychotherapy). We don't know if Supernanny improves anyone's long-term parenting, and there are no longitudinal studies to show if The Biggest Loser extends life spans. But like diet books that promise to keep off the fat forever (or until the next diet book, whichever comes first), these shows play off the American ideal of self-reinvention, the confidence that perfection is just one more makeover or 12-step program away...
...marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., he would later serve as the president of the National Rifle Association. Before the onset of the Alzheimer’s that claimed his life, Heston was often just a punch line for jokes about Soylent Green and gun nuts, but in truth he was a lot more than that...