Letters to the Editor
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Propaganda
It really is not possible to correctly characterize something as propaganda unless you have actually experienced it. If it is a book/article, you must read it and then compare it to the available facts. You must actually make some effort to determine if the available facts match those presented in the book/article and if the book/article has made an effort to present something reasonably even-handed or, at the very least, is supported by some sort of logic.
It is quite laughable to call a movie propaganda when one has not seen it. If the movie is reviewed, one cannot correctly call the review propaganda unless one verifies that it correctly presents the movie. To do that, you have to view the movie.
Some propaganda is a lie. Some lies are just lies. Not all propaganda presents lies. Propaganda can simply be an organized presentation of ideas slanted to the purpose of causing a certain reaction in the reader/viewer/listener. Often a knee-jerk or emotional reaction is desired.
Just as there is a little larceny in all of us, there is a little propaganda in many forms of communication. It is too tempting for writers, speakers, directors, and politicians, and so on not to use it. This is not all bad. Sometimes it is quite exciting and powerful. Sometimes it urges us to make changes that we actually need to make.
It is only when we leave our brains on the threshold and enter the house of understanding with only our emotions as guide that we tend to fall victim to propaganda.
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It is very dangerous to have torture codified into our laws. People must torture at their own peril and face legal consequences for their missteps if they get caught or if the court of public opinion is not properly grateful for the information they extract. The reason we must keep it that way is not so that the terrorist who has planted a yet-to-be-detonated bomb goes unquestioned, but rather so that we don't have a bunch of idiots running amok placing bags over the heads of naked people and terrifying them with dog attacks; so that we don't have the Vice President of the United States of America singing the praises of waterboarding on a Sunday morning talk show; so that there is some reasonable due process for all prisoners; however we may wish to characterized their detention.
It would be nice if internationally we could salvage some vestige of dignity and some shred of decency, wouldn't it? Otherwise, if we don't, when we most need it who will have our back?
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AKA Smith, correct.
By saying that propaganda is a lie, I was engaging in polemic, a mild form of propaganda.
So where does polemic become propaganda? When is effective presentation propaganda? What about marketing?
At any rate, to call something propaganda is to accuse the messenger of deceptive intent, a point too fine to use in a mud fight like this one, IMO.
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But as to torture, it might surprise some that America as a whole isn't as opposed to torture as liberals would like to think.
I suppose it's because America isn't the nation that most Americans like to think it is.
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Hi grubert,
What I don't get is WHY no one called Mikes Pace on one particular statement.
At the beginning or the mud wrestling he said this:
"If you are a white America reading this, KNOW that Islamists would LOVE to cut your head off. But you still defend them and shame Bush?? Look, I don't like him either, I'm just asking you to consider our 'opponents,' and their actions."
Let us subtitute the word terrorist for the word Islamist.
(Knowing of course that not all or even most Islamists are terrorists. Apparently Mikes has bought the Bush propaganda that hopes to make us see a valid religion in such terms. So let's give him the benefit of a doubt. Let's assume he meant terrorists.)
If terrorists are a threat to white people, then where does that leave the rest of us who might be black Baptists, Asian Buddhists, Hispanic Catholics, mixed race Unitarian-Universalists, Native Americans who practice their own spiritual traditions?
I am so confused. Did the 9-11 terrorists unload everyone that wasn't white before they crashed those planes into the Twin Towers.
I admit that like most Americans I was quite shocked at the time. In fact, I was so upset that I simply turned off the news and just didn't follow it for awhile, so it is possible that the terrorists actually did this and I missed it.
I really tried not to think about the horror much until suddenly I found the Bush administration was planning to invade Iraq. "What?" I thought. "Why are they invading Iraq and trying to equate the invasion with 9-11?" I am politically naive so, unlike most Americans (maybe I am not mainstream enough), I opposed invading Iraq without clear evidence of WMDs. I did not think we had that evidence when they went in.
Appallingly, I began to feel rather unAmerican. I have always loved my country. I loved it through Vietnam, strange assasinations, Watergate, Iran-contra, the uninspiring presidencies of Gerald Ford and Bush I, Clinton's blow job, and the 9-11 attack. Geez, what can I say? I used to be a Patriot.
Sadly I clung to my illusions and was doing pretty well until I got the internet. A whole world opened up to me. The much maligned mainstream media had failed me. Suddenly there were other sources of information. Weeping and wailing, I asked the god(s)/goddess(es) I sometimes don't believe in to send me a sign. I got it! It was called the Patriot Act.
I guess you know my sad story. It is all too common. I began to fear for my Constitutional Rights, then I began to fear for the rights of Iraqis (who, after all, we were trying to "save"), then I began to fear for the rights of all Americans. Next thing you know, paranoically, I began to obsess about that fragile document called The Consitution of the United States of America. After all, it only consists of paper and vision.
I wish someone would help me, because I think I am only a couple of steps away from becoming a deranged conspiracy theorist.
Perhaps my problem is that I am always looking at nuances while people like Mikes Pace only think in black and white. Oops! I think I even got that wrong! I should say he thinks in white and black. No. That is not nuanced enough . . . He thinks in white and OTHER.
I would surely appreciated any non-racist advise anyone has to offer. How do I begin to trust our elected officials again? How do I retain my love for my country? How do I stop my worst nightmare from reocurring, the nightmare that we aren't the good guys anymore?