The End Of Ignorance, In A Sense »
Posted By Radiofreeeuropa 10 months, 2 weeks ago in News
Just as important to America's descent into a morass of foul defalcation and empty pseudo-ideology as Newt and the holy flimflam men is the well-funded media apparatus that ceaselessly broadcasts idiotic right-wing propaganda. Figures like Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and, of course, Ann Coulter, are part of that Faustian deal. Fox Noise network and talk radio whipped their audience into a vaunted resentful fury, raging against anyone not in lockstep with their fraudulent agenda and labeling them "godless secularists" and "liberal elites" who they blamed for the moral collapse of America. This vicious invented "culture war" played on the fear and confusion of many traditional Americans confronting massive societal and cultural changes. Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas?" documents this process very well.
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Radiofreeeuropa
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Radiofreeeuropa10 months, 2 weeks ago
This is a brief overview of the situation. America drinks from the bitter cup...and throws up.
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What passes for conservative agenda in the US today bears no resemblance whatsoever to actual conservative thought. All that is left of the movement is it's propaganda machinery. The ideology itself has proven itself empty,bankrupt, and corrupt. Enough centrists (who always determine the outcome of elections- the "true believers" in both camps cancel each other out) have witnessed the decline and looting of America and the destabilization of many regions of the world caused by the reckless ill-informed policies of these pseudo conservatives.
We won't get fooled again. -
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memestryker10 months, 2 weeks ago
This article really resonates with me. I've argued that true conservatism is just a memory, just as classical liberalism is. We endlessly hear the prattle of right- and left-wing extremists who seem to unthinkingly adopt a platform that's spoonfed to them.
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As I've watched science crumble, "museums" and "think tanks" that are anything but come into being and even guide public policy, in some cases, while the economy comes smashing down, I've become more concerned about the future of the Western world.
RFE, I believe that YOU won't get fooled again. I wonder about some others, though!-
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Radiofreeeuropa10 months, 2 weeks ago
memestryker,
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There are those who are simply professional fools, and they are numerous enough, yet I have faith in the human race overall to override them. The observable failure and decline of America, and what is great about it, over the last 8 years has certainly made moderates take a hard look at the pseudo-cons. I can't see anyone with a working bit of gray matter saying "yup deese boys did a heII of a job Brownie, I want more of the same". We are better than this.
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Spadecaller10 months, 2 weeks ago
I have two friends that are true conservatives; they are the silent conservatives. The neocon is a relatively innocuous term: but for the policies that I see touted on FOX from the likes of Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Coulter, Reed, Duke, or Oli North... these are not true conservatives, and the term used to describe should be neonazicons.
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These are people who represent the radical right wing and they must be removed from power before things worsen in this country and the world. The international community despises and fears them; understandably, after what happened in the thirties.
Their militaristic, my country right or wrong ideology is mostly characterized by xenophobic, homophobic, racist, and anti-Semitic views. They use the same tactics as McCarthy and Hitler -- branding the left as commies, un-American, Godless pagans, queers, and Jews.
They do not care what tactics they use to attack their adversaries; to them the means always justify the ends. Most of them think that only white Christians who already speak English should be considered eligible for citizenship in " their country." They despise anyone who hyphenates their identity, such "Afro-American" or "Jewish-American."
They blame their favorite groups (liberals, Democrats, blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Gays, Atheists, and the poor), for economic strife, war, and social unrest. They believe there is only one American party, one religion, and they are willing to support a dictator like Bush only because he shares their same views, so they believe.-
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memestryker10 months, 2 weeks ago
I only wish Obama had not chosen Biden for a running mate. I'm pretty bummed out about that. Biden is just as hateful and judgmental as the equivalent Republicans. This may be the first election where I vote for item C (which would probably give Obama the election, but at least not my vote).
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Radiofreeeuropa10 months, 2 weeks ago
Well said SC, I believe their influence is on the decline. For instance Newscorp (Murdoch-Fox News) stock is down close to 40% this year .Other major media companies have remained relatively stable. Make no mistake their resources are vast and have been effective in the past but because of the extreme and obvious chicanery of the Bush administration, the measured negative results of their rule, and US decline, most all reasonable people are being forced to reject further steps in the wrong direction.
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Lurch10 months, 2 weeks ago
How do you actually teach people to vote in their own best interests?
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Education would be the natural answer, but when the RW media owns so much of the information dissemination channels in this country, the disinformation gets spread and shared just as quickly or more quickly than the truth.
Look at Hillary`s mistaken memory about the Bosnian sniper story. McCain has dozens of mistaken memory stories about his past, but none of them have been reported in the msm. Just one example, McCain switches the football team to the local football team as he travels around the country telling his favorite POW anecdotes.
Another example; McCain tells the cross in the sand story that another POW wrote actually happened to him years ago. McCain never wrote about the cross in the sand or mentioned it til recently, not even in the memoirs he wrote right after receiving his freedom. It is a completely assumed memory of a senile man, or its just a bald-faced lie. Either way, McCain aint ready for the WH. -
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hyperbola10 months, 2 weeks ago
The "cultural war" is a right-wing distraction from their class war. What's wrong with Kansas? should be supplemented with this book.
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Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
by Joe Bageant
“Informative, infuriating, terrifying, scintillating . . . Imagine a cross between Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter with Kansas?, Hunter S. Thompson’s booze-and-dope-fueled meditations on Nixon’s political potency, and C. Wright Mills’s understanding of the durability of the power elite.”
http://www.amazon.com/Deer-Hunting-Jesus-Dispatches-Americas/dp/030733936X-
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memestryker10 months, 2 weeks ago
Sounds very interesting. Mills is one of my favorite authors of all time.
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Radiofreeeuropa10 months, 2 weeks ago
Thanks for the suggestion hyperbola, the book sounds quite intriguing.
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tchef10 months, 2 weeks ago
I truly hope that America is waking up and seeing the current form of the GOP for what they are. I guess we'll know after the election.
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nikkibabe10 months, 2 weeks ago
I will believe that is the "real" end of ignorance in this country ONLY IF they defeat the Bush & his crooked bunch in November.
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nikkibabe10 months, 2 weeks ago
I will believe that is the "real" end of ignorance in this country ONLY IF they defeat the Bush & his crooked bunch in November.
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miklkit10 months, 2 weeks ago
It's hard to believe that half the people in this country WANT to be led by lying murdering thieves. But that is what we have had. Will we the people wake up from this nightmare?
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david_nwpa10 months, 2 weeks ago
RFE, I agree with your points in this article and in the subsequent discussion. However, I suspect we have only begun to see the ignorance flowing forth from the neocon side of the aisle. As older faux cons die away, they are subsequently replaced by up and coming dimwits. Consider some of the videos that have appeared on Propeller.com which show young college Republicans making ready for their ritualistic brainwashing and shearing. They are not being indoctrinated into the party of Eisenhower and Ford. They are entering the party of family legends such as the Bush's and the Reagans. They have their marching orders and are entering law firms and practicing politics across the nation.
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Every day in nearly every state, gays and lesbians, as one example goes, face battles over marriage, adoption, and civil rights. In Louisiana, Governor Jindal thinks it proper to allow Governor Blanco's executive orders to expire; thus eliminating job protection for anyone who is GLBT in Louisiana. His argument is that the Feds and Louisiana have protections in place for people, and that gays want special rights. The thing is, we want equal rights, but the Repugs do not see it that way. Gays and lesbians are but one group who are castigated merely for not fitting the man, woman household with 2.8 kids and a dog.
The blistering ignorance rages in battles across the country in which the right believe firmly in the value of the corporation at the expense of our environment. Instead of punishing polluters and protecting wildlife, our gutless, spineless admins in Washington strip the EPA of any worth. They allow corporations to re-write environmental regulations to fit whatever whimsy they may have as long as it lines the pockets of shareholders.
As for education, we all are aware that under the watch of GW, NCLB has put many school districts in terrible shape. Instead of encouraging improvement, this haphazard law seeks to punish already troubled schools. Instead of offering hope, this dismal law threatens to remove good teachers and replace them with unqualified babysitters.
Ignorance will only stop if enough people wake up and put an end to it. We need leaders like RFE to show the way. -
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injest10 months, 2 weeks ago
“goose stepping right wing fanatics
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little red book thumping communists
Faustian deal with the devil”
Evil corporate got ta be coming soon here
“extravagant self-praising Republican Revolution of 1994
ya he won, you lost, get over it
evangelical holy warriors”
Was this done with one of those auto generate programs?
Gingrich and Dominionist minions
“guns, God and gays. Which was a smokescreen to keep the bilking of the treasury, the subversion of the constitution, unequaled hypocrisy, and gross incompetence from being brought to the forefront of American Politics”
Wow how sad anything new?
“Just Buy All The Media Outlets...
Just as important to America's descent into a morass of foul defalcation and empty pseudo-ideology as Newt “
Defalcation and empty pseudo-ideology as Newt?
Oh I get it, someone’s trying to copy Dennis Miller without actually having a point. How Un-Original.
ROFLMAO
Let see we got Colbert or summing like that who is trying to copy Bill O.
Uberboy who tries to copy Edward R. Murrow (seriously lame and pathetic)
Al Franklin tried to copy “The Factor” of Bill O
Can someone on the left come up with a new act? -
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MajJohn10 months, 2 weeks ago
In the beginning the author correctly points out that most of us are centrists to some degree, "not red book chest thumping communists". He then takes off in a diatribe against what he considers the other extreme,, right wing Nazi's. Never another word about the leftists who are just as dangerous. All of America's ills are blamed upon those who are right of what he considers true conservatives. This is meant to give everyone the idea that he's a TRUE conservative in the Goldwater sense. If this were true, there would be some discussion about all the past harm caused by the left wing (radical socialists). Never a word.
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So it's clear that there's an agenda here. It's clear that this is a smear job and it's politics as usual, down and dirty. The calls made by both Obama and McCain to be less confrontational are ignored. Why? It's always been the case that when one side feels it's losing then all bets are off. The media is controlled by "the other side". The talking heads are evil an "I'm good". The other side is for taking away our rights, promoting propaganda, The other side is intellectually deficient. They are prejudiced against every one except white Anglo Saxon Protestants. I guess this is supposed to mean that every one except that group is somehow virtuous.
In order to win this election the tactic is simple, vilify McCain by pointing out that he's a Bush clone. This translates well and gives the appearance that the Democrats are still running against Bushites. For heavens sake, let's not talk about the issues and each candidates stand on those issues. If swift boating worked for the Republicans then lets do the same thing. Uh, but don't criticize us for it. It's desperation time folks, we have to get those poll numbers up!.-
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memestryker10 months, 2 weeks ago
MajJohn,
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I agree with you on the bias, however I think the article is good in that it makes one think. Propeller seems to attract some very right- and left-wing people, but it also attracts people who are open to learning from each other and trying to improve their choices and behaviors.
At least the extremists always point out what's wrong with the opposite side, so we also learn from them. -
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Radiofreeeuropa10 months, 2 weeks ago
I did not intend to represent myself as a Goldwater conservative, I admired the man on a personal level and respected his constitutional stance. I believe I said I was a fiscal conservative but a social liberal which makes me pretty close to the center. I would not describe myself as a Goldwater conservative at all but I respect and understand that point of view. I thank you for reading the piece and it sounds like you kept an open mind about it as well -good for you! It is an opinion piece, so it is nothing but my opinion which is a personal point of view, I see the left as being scapegoated for ills that both the global capitalism and modern life have wrought. I am not seeing the right being blamed for these things. So if that is bias, so be it -but without an opinion there would be no article.
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Peace
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not2needy10 months, 2 weeks ago
The neocons have definitely ruined what was once a proud respected political party. I don't think politics in this country will ever be the same again.
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One thing about Libbies is.... we don't stick together like they do. Cons support eachother regardless of how low down and dirty it gets, while we always make the effort to take the moral high ground. The end result is that while we still have our self respect, we're being sold out, losing our homes, and jobs while trying to hang onto our dignity.
Some times you have to fight fire with fire, use the resources available, because one thing is for sure, they certainly will, and what they don't have available, they will make up. We have seen it right here on Propeller. We have seen submissions based on tabloid garbage hit the front page with the posters in a frenzy, gleeful of anything they think will demean anyone in the Democratic party.
The smear machine is at work constantly, and they support eachother in every venue from Fox to Propeller.-
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Radiofreeeuropa10 months, 2 weeks ago
That is true, what I think though is enough reasonable moderates who decide elections (the hard core party voters pretty much just cancel each other out) are not as receptive to the BS as they were pre Bush. The loss of treasure,respect,and personal freedom are observable facts and all the bogus emails and untrue commercials in the world cannot undo what the majority of people have experienced.
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The machine that cranks out this garbage is alive and well, but there is no substance to back up any of it's claims. I think enough people see through the smokescreen to render the machinery impotent.
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