So is THIS how it works?

[Mythsaje]

People have been running around here for the last several days, more or less CERTAIN that BushCo is going to arrange a terrorist attack and use it as an excuse to declare martial law and cancel the elections. I mean, some folks seem to think it's a sure thing.

I'm not so certain. But it bothers the hell out of me that my wife's co-workers are discussing the same possibility. I expect that sort of thing here, but not out in the wider world. It's NOT a good sign in general.

I think it needs to be addressed publicly, and fast.

So I posted something to that effect. And received ONE cogent response and two Recommends.

I have to ask. Whether it's in the works or not, don't you think we should make the concern as public as possible?

Are we going to run around shrieking to ourselves, or do whatever we can to get it out there where everyone can hear it? Where everyone can take a good hard look at why people are starting to think it's possible.

I'm talking a kind of "dictator insurance." Warning them that, if they ARE thinking about something like that, it will not go over as easily as all that.

I still don't think it's likely, but, regardless, I think we should take steps to make it LESS likely. Like speaking up and speaking out about it. Letting the people out THERE know that others just like them are talking about it.

It may be our only real defense against the possibility. The best way to catch a rat stealing from your cupboard is shining a light on him as he's in the act.

So how do we do it?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1406543&mesg_id=1406543

edited because it's been a long day.

[wildbilln864]

1. K&R! I completely agree! eom

[villager]

2. I agree - we need to keep talking about this, the way we did with election fraud

but we have to reach critical mass a lot faster. We've gotta get "viral" with this idea -- and we need to decide/prepare (probably not in this forum), what we might do during various stages of dung hitting fan...

[cutlassmama]

6. agreed eom

[EFerrari]

3. Grow the buzz. Keep talking. Ring up your network.

And it doesn't have to be framed as "I think Bush is going to nuke us" but maybe simply "I don't think we're safe right now. They blew it on 9/11 and nothing has changed. I'm worried."

[Mythsaje]

4. No, I don't like that meme. Too weak.

We need to put them on notice that they ARE being watched and it won't be as easy as they may think it would be.

We need to turn the low rumble into a roar. "The people ARE watching, and they don't TRUST you."

We need to get the word out to people, but we need it also to reach the ears of those who would have reason to pay attention.

No accusations, just "concern" about the murmuring. "Is that what we've come to? People are scared of THIS?"

I mean, what does THAT tell you about this government as it stands today?

:evilgrin:

[cutlassmama]

11. Perhaps because of his latest EO stating he could take away assets

It's a scare tactic to shut us all up.

[cutlassmama]

7. He had paid off the media before. Are they really going to listen? eom

[EFerrari]

19. I was talking about friends, family, neighbors, clubs and the

indy media.

[Recursion]

5. *cough* we have (or at least had) dictator insurance...

enshrined in our Constitution somewhere between freedom of speech and forbidding the quartering of troops...

[cutlassmama]

8. He said the Consitutution "was just a piece of paper" eom

[Recursion]

10. I'm talking about the particular amendment...

...that ensures the Constitution is made of something harder and hotter than paper if the People have the courage to defend it.

[pacalo]

9. I agree -- we need to hammer the media that this administration can't be trusted.

The recent revelation that the Oval Office can stifle dissent by seizing all personal property cannot go unanswered by Congress or the media.

[checks-n-balances]

13. Anybody out there know Cafferty?

He hasn't been shy about expressing his opinion and usually in a very compelling way!

[Syrinx]

12. k/r

I wish that Keith Olbermann would do a two-hour special on all the crimes of the administration and the implications. I'd actually prefer Brian Williams or somebody on one of the big networks, but it seems Olbermann is the only guy on tv that has the slightest clue what is going on.

[checks-n-balances]

15. Maybe if some of our REAL journalists from corporate media could help

their bosses see that our nation will NOT thrive on a dictatorship and even more compelling, might not survive very well another attack, they'll stop being complicit and start REPORTING THE NEWS.

I wonder if Stewart or Colbert know; if they did, they still have to rely on other sources of media first and find the humor in them, but this story ain't at all humorous. It would also probably get them blacked out by someone. Hard to know how to handle this situation because we've never had it before and we don't know how much power they actually have over the media (to stop it from functioning, I mean).

[Demeter]

17. I Doubt That It Would All Fit Into Two Hours

even if each item only got one 10 word sentence!

[Philosoraptor]

14. It's the happy, shiny, new American century!

[CGowen]

16. What a project...n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

18. Cassandra syndrome

"The Cassandra Syndrome is a term applied to those whose predictions of doom are initially dismissed, but later turn out to be correct. This denotes a psychological tendency among people to deny and disbelieve such predictions. The person making the prediction is caught in the dilemma of knowing what will happen but not being able to convince others."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra_phenomenon

It's variant here is reflected in the dismissal of all such speculation with the pejorative "tin foil hatted conspiracy theorist".

So we cannot really go running around braying "new 9-11", as of course unlike Cassandra we are not cursed with prescient vision. We just have a deep and well founded fear that this administration has boxed itself into a corner through a series of misdeeds of varying degrees of criminality, and that a good way out for them would be another catastrophic strike inside our borders.

It raises a bit of a dilemma. Perhaps the best strategy is simply to openly discuss our fears while not claiming any certain knowledge, and to identify our friends and neighbors who we think we can trust and talk to them about a much darker future.