The Maytag Effect

Ever since I first turned on a television, I’ve seen plenty of Maytag commercials. The Maytag repairman is pleasant, soft-spoken and most importantly, always bored at his job; the premise being, of course, that a Maytag appliance rarely needs any repairs. After purchasing my first Maytag dishwasher, I learned just how big of a lie this is in a matter of months! Perusing my Consumer Reports magazine, I checked the repair history section and quickly realized that Maytag appliances rate very low. I was flummoxed. How is it that Maytag would seemingly boast about its efficiency when it is obviously false? It was at this moment I had an epiphany and came to realize what I call, The Maytag Effect.

Advertisers take certain liberties with their products. Everyone knows this in some form or other; that advertisers manipulate and exaggerate. In my naivete, however, I was not expecting outright lies. I never expected a company to take the worst aspect of their product and attempt to turn it into their trademark. Now that I can recognize companies might twist their negatives, I can see that many people use this tactic. Taking the weakest position on a topic and making it the most important facet of argument, that’s The Maytag Effect.

I have come to recognize the effect in many other aspects of life. Politicians, journalists, educators, bloggers, experts; they all use The Maytag Effect to some degree. Here are a few examples I have overheard:

"In Switzerland, because every male has a weapon in their home, they have a very low crime rate." But a simple search reveals that Switzerland has one of the highest murder rates in Europe, and some per capita statistics show it to have one of the highest murder rates in the industrialized world.

"Republicans are stronger on defense." In 2006 the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America rated U.S. senators according to their actual votes on legislation that directly benefitted soldiers. The IAVA rated all the Democrats first, then came all the Republicans. The louder the politician bloviating about supporting the troops, the lower the ranking on the list.

"Being a vegetarian is unhealthy, because they don’t get enough protein" Fifty grams of protein are needed for an average human each day, on average, yet a simple Pizza Margherita has 42 grams of protein.

Jon Kyl held a press release in which he responded to serious questions about his claim that 90 percent of Planned Parenthood's activities are abortion. I suppose I should be placated with his response in which he said, "Not meant to be a factual statement."

It’s always been there. Plenty of people know that the person who yells the loudest is usually the most guilty. However, The Maytag Effect is a concerted effort to deceive. This is a tactic to willingly denigrate society for one's own advancement. The reason this is so detrimental is because it is an outright fabrication of the truth. And, well, truth is important.

I could go on and on. People who use these talking points love to use them not because they want dialogue with another person but rather they willingly use false arguments to strengthen their own beliefs. It becomes less an argument than a ploy to seed credibility to a defenseless position. In fact, it creates doubt among those who criticize. Don’t research the information yourself, don’t find all the facts, don’t extrapolate from a variety of sources and then come to a logical conclusion. Nope, let others tell you about it. And trust them... they wouldn’t lie.