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What We Have Learned From Media: Part 1

Introduction:

Well well well...what have we here? My friends, welcome to a multi-segmented series (wait...is that like saying "wet water"?) on how media has taught us oh so much in our lifetimes. More so in the last few years. Or more so in the last year. Or maybe not. I might change my mind. Enjoy.

The Trading Spaces Effect

Admit it...you've seen the show. Or maybe you're a self-professed Trading Spaces guru who puts on the Trading Spaces smock for anything even slightly artistic. Either way, you have witnessed something amazing. I deem this amazing discovery the TSP, or Trading Spaces Effect. The basic premise? 99% of Americans have no understanding (and I mean none) of tasteful decor vs. absolutely revolting beyond belief decor; and under the right circumstances will believe anything.

The best example for this effect is the designer Hildi Santo-Tomas who, amazingly, gets away with vandalizing people's houses...and then gets paid for it. A few examples: 1) Hildi spray paints white squiggles on all the walls. 2) Hildi...um...does something to a room. 3) Hildi covers the walls in feathers. 4) Hildi covers the walls in wrapping paper. This is not to mention the times she did not prime wood before painting, did not take down wallpaper before painting, spray painted furniture with regular spray paint, spray painted a stove and refrigerator with regular spray paint, or covered the bathroom walls with fake flowers.

Why do I give these examples? The reason is simple...in 9/10ths of these rooms, the homeowners who should have been getting out their handguns and hunting Hildi down merely smiled, or hugged, or screamed in delight at what a "professional" designer had done to their previously ugly room. This atrocious manner displayed by unsuspecting homeowners falls into the category of a simple logical fallacy: the argumentum ad verecundiam (or the argument from authority). You know this fallacy...believe me. Any time a parent has said, "Because I said so!" or a commercial has stated, "4 out of 5 doctors agree!" or some dolt has said, "But the President said it, so it must be true" you have been subjected to the argumentum ad verecundiam. Just because someone in a position of authority says something does not, in any way, mean that it has to be true. A doctor could say, "Genital herpes is a yummy grape flavored candy", and a 5 year old child can say, "Genital herpes is an STD"......and who is right? The 5 year old child. A PhD does not mean infallibility. But due to our friend Trading Spaces, we have learned that of those 99% of Americans who do not have any taste whatsoever when it comes to decor, 90% or more fall head over heals for the argument from authority. They think to themselves, "If a PROFESSIONAL said this is in good taste...then it MUST be in good taste...even if the water will get on the fake flowers and ruin them, and the steam from the shower will get on the flowers and ruin them, and the staples sticking halfway out of the walls will rust due to water vapor and not being made to handle water being splashed on them over and over." And they are WRONG.

What I'm trying to say is that we have learned to not trust anyone just because they are a professional. And those who do when it comes to their decor? Well...they fall into the 99%.
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