Subject:
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Re: Eh, what's a few dollars amongst friends...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:09:43 GMT
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Viewed:
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247 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Koudys wrote:
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What happened between the ‘70’s and now? Woodward and Bernstein spent many
days/months uncovering the problem, and with the current administartion, the
lies and ‘coverups’ (if they could even be called that’) are blatant and
easily realized.
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Yeah, I agree. Here’s the problem (and I thought I had touched on this
before...ah, yes http://news.lugnet.com/off-topic/debate/?n=21744): public
relations.
We aren’t having wars -- we are buying into a product. We aren’t believing the
lies -- the subject of public discourse is the lie itself.
Basically, it’s like this: all we talk about is the war with Iraq when we really
should be talking about the economy -- the world economy, for that matter. He
who controls the subject of public discourse wins. Consequently, we aren’t
talking about how to improve the quality of life for people living on spaceship
earth; instead we are talking about why we should/shouldn’t be killing S.H.,
O.B.L., or Arafat.
And I think there is a very important related problem: comfort and apathy. To
illustrate this point I must recall an incident occurring between my SO’s mother
and myself about two weeks ago. We were having dinner out when all of a sudden
she starts up with tort reform and this ridiculous lawsuit against McDonald’s.
If people get fat on it it’s their own fault, she asserts. I agree that while
people have the primary responsibility for their own problems, it’s also
possible that laws should be passed to assure that consumers are better informed
of what precisely is at the end of their forks. I cite concerns over genetically
modified foods (terminator crops in particular), and trans fatty acids
(hydrogenated oils). She counters with how people that smoke know that they are
harming their health. I comment that perhaps they didn’t realize they were
smoking more than common tobacco -- that the industry engineered chemical
increases in the tobacco to create a pointedly addictive drug delivery system.
She says everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, just as is drinking to
excess. I suggest that maybe if alcoholic beverages were laced with arsenic it
would be a consumer’s right to know that fact. She says, “Aw, who cares? What
can you do about it...?” I ask, “You don’t care if your grandchildren don’t have
decent crop strains, or can assure themselves of product purity levels of the
things they eat?” She informs me that once you get past a certain age you just
stop worrying about such things. Moral of the story: she got hers, she doesn’t
care if you get yours.
Normally, I am not allowed to discuss politics with my SO’s far-right relatives.
But that’s how evil wins, when good people do nothing. Bread and circuses keep
them amused, then they do nothing. Hypnotized, paralyzed, comfortable.
Pass me the soma...
Refs:
Lessons in how to lie about Iraq: The problem is not propaganda but the
relentless control of the kind of things we think about
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1020303,00.html
When I first visited Russia, in 1986, I made friends with a musician whose
father had been Brezhnev’s personal doctor. One day we were talking about life
during ‘the period of stagnation’ - the Brezhnev era. ‘It must have been strange
being so completely immersed in propaganda,’ I said.
‘Ah, but there is the difference. We knew it was propaganda,’ replied Sacha.
That is the difference. Russian propaganda was so obvious that most Russians
were able to ignore it. They took it for granted that the government operated in
its own interests and any message coming from it was probably slanted - and they
discounted it.
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq
http://www.prwatch.org/books/wmd.html
Toxic Sludge Is Good For You! Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations
Industry
http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy.html
And yes, that’s our buddy Tom Tomorrow supplying the cover artwork.
-- Hop-Frog
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Eh, what's a few dollars amongst friends...
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| (...) Apathy is rampant everywhere--what can one person do against the establishment? is the common consensus. As for the smoking thing--I'm pretty much on the fence--sueing tobacco companies now 'cause we didn't know the harm of smoking... The term (...) (21 years ago, 16-Sep-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Eh, what's a few dollars amongst friends...
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| In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richard Marchetti wrote: <snip> (...) Can you then explain to me how Watergate happened, which, as far as I can see, was relatively benign in the 'grand scheme of things', got a president kicked out of office, and yet the (...) (21 years ago, 15-Sep-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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