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Edited on Wed Oct-26-05 01:20 AM by Peace Patriot
...at DU always manages to chime in, almost instantly, with something like this, "...an American public so entrenched in blind nationalism," that--in this case--it clearly won't care about the "mountain of evidence" of "manufactured intelligence." In other words, whatever the Bushite issue, Americans (meaning, most Americans, I presume), will swallow Bush propaganda like "sheeple."
I strongly disagree with this. I believe there is overwhelming evidence that contradicts it. But let me back up a minute first.
ClintonTyree (above) then goes on to discuss "the media" and what it will do--it will "give no credence to this or any other country's investigative journalism"--then says, "it's perception that counts in America." I agree with this latter statement--it's perception that counts--at least to some degree. I also agree that, based on the record of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies thus far, during the Bush junta, they are likely not only to ignore (or try to ignore) this report from Italy, they will also likely ignore (or try to ignore), spin, demean, trivialize and blackhole any bad news about Bush Jr. and his horrible war. But I don't agree with the first part--that the American public doesn't care and--as a general characterization--is gripped with "blind nationalism."
58% of Americans opposed the Iraq war before the invasion. Feb. 03. That number dipped only once, during the few weeks of the invasion, then went right back up to nearly 60%, where it stayed throughout the election. It's in the 70% range today.
The American people never supported this war. Never! They overwhelmingly wanted the UN inspectors to complete their work, and UN consensus on any military action, not pre-emptive war by Bush (and about 30% of them opposed the war outright).
Look deeper at the issue polls over the last two years, and you will be amazed at what you find. The great majority of Americans not only oppose this war--and always have--they also oppose every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic, way up in the 60% to 70% range. You name it. The Iraq war. Bush torture policy (63% opposed to torture "under any circumstances"--May '04). Social Security. The deficit. Women's rights.
There is, in fact, a great progressive consensus in this country, with the great majority of Americans having almost no representation of their views in Washington DC.
Add to this Bush approval figures, never strong (except for a brief moment after 9/11), and which were so low leading up to the election, Zogby said he couldn't win, and have sunk like the Titanic today (into the mid-30s), and other figures, such as the Democrats' blowout success in new voter registration in 2004, nearly 60/40, and you really begin to wonder about that word "perception."
Why do the individual members of this great progressive majority have the PERCEPTION that they are all alone, that "I must be the only one"? And why does the rightwing minority--a figure that is, at its best, in the 40% range--possess such a Big Trumpet in the corporate news monopolies, to promulgate their views way out of proportion to their numbers?
It's clear to me that the great majority of Americans are not stupid and uninformed, and are not "sheeple"--they are disempowered, and, above all DISENFRANCHISED.
And if you then look at certain facts about our election system--for instance, that, in 2004, 80% of our votes were tabulated by two far rightwing Bushite corporations--Diebold and ES&S--using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, or that the corporate news monopolies, late on election day, DOCTORED their own exit polls (which Kerry won) to FIT the results of Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae (Bush won), well, you have to figure that Americans may in fact be a bit stupid and uninformed on this one--albeit important--matter: Their election system has been seriously compromised, and very likely produced the wrong result for president (if not for other offices as well).
After reading the stats on Americans' views on torture, I have to tell you that I was deeply touched. Americans are maintaining their sense of ethics and lawfulness and fairness, despite relentless fear-mongering. They have been subjected to an incredible regime of propaganda, on this and other issues, and they haven't bought it. 63% is a HUGE majority. In an election, it would be an overwhelming landslide. Why then did we have torture memo writer Alberto Gonzales shoved down our throats as the chief law enforcement officer of the U.S.? How could that happen?
I think it is critically important to make a distinction between what Americans are really thinking and what the corporate news monopolies portray them as thinking or want them to think. And this is the mistake that DUers are making, in describing Americans, or most Americans, as "sheeple"--that the two things are the same: What most Americans really think, and what the corporate news monopolies TELL US we think, by the sort of news and opinion they present.
For this reason, I greatly object to the phrase "mainstream media" (MSM). When we describe the corporate news monopolies as "mainstream," we are giving ground to them on the illusion that they are manufacturing that they represent US, as a people, and our opinions, when they very clearly, and very demonstrably, do not. The irony is that some of the evidence is in their own opinion polls, which they rarely analyze or comment on, or pay any heed to.
I think Americans care, and care deeply, and I think we are a very frustrated and discontented--and maybe even depressed--people, because we are not being heard! We seem to be powerless to prevent mass murder and torture of others, in our name, and massive theft of our own treasury, even though we perceive these outrages, from alternative news sources or from our own intelligence, reading between the lines of the corporate news coverage, and repeatedly express our opposition, whenever we are asked, and in whatever way we can.
So, please, please stop and think before you say Americans do not care, or Americans are brainwashed, or have swallowed the fascist line--or are unthinking "sheeple." Put the problem to yourself entirely differently: ASSUME that Americans DO care, and do NOT agree with Bush and the rightwing, and are broken-hearted about the things that are happening, and feel helpless about it--and try to buck them up and find their way back to empowerment as citizens.
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Re: The reception here of the Italian report. This report is not an opinion, it is reported fact, that has been confirmed by official sources, that points to the attempted subversion of our government by a fascist cabal in the Italian intelligence service. And it appears that high White House officials were colluding with this cabal, and the Bush regime was/is harboring a cabal of its own who likely committed serious crimes related to the ones that are already being investigated. If they didn't just lie about the Niger allegation, but manufactured false evidence of it, this adds to the number and types of laws they may have broken, and to the overall, heinous crime of lying us into war. I don't think this can be sloughed off the corporate news monopolies, but they never cease to amaze me, what they slough off, so we will see. (And, in any case, it's more important what the Grand Jury thinks about it than what the corporate news monopolies think about it.)
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