{"id":7746,"date":"2006-11-26T21:13:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-27T04:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=7746"},"modified":"2006-11-26T21:13:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-27T04:13:00","slug":"clear-as-crystal-updated-now-with-100-more-sexual-accuracy-ahem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=7746","title":{"rendered":"Clear as crystal – Updated Now with 100% More Sexual Accuracy! [ahem]"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an interesting post<\/a> at Gates of Vienna<\/i>, the Baron bemoans the ignorance of the American electorate and its consequences–consequences that are rapidly shaping up as tragic<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n

\n

We, the readers of Gates of Vienna, and other members of the VRWC live in a rarefied atmosphere. We\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2re relatively well-informed, and vacuum up information wherever it can be found, not relying on news filters and conventional sources.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut most Americans don\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t pay much attention. They have only the most superficial grasp of political issues, yet many of them vote. When they pick up any political information at all, it is from the soundbites on the network news, or from the headlines in the national dailies. And in the last two decades these organs of the Fourth Estate have gone from being biased towards the liberal to being outspoken shills for the Democrat party. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nHe notes–as do I, only with considerably more alarm–that even the most moderate Americans, including friends and relatives I thought would know better, appear to have been brainwashed by ‘common knowledge’ to a degree I would not have believed possible.\n<\/p>\n

\n

…when they talk about current political issues, their positions are almost word-for-word from the headlines in the Washington Post or the soundbites from the evening news. You can hear them say \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cBush is a moron\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d or \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cRepublicans only care about rich people\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d without any idea of whose party line they are parroting or where they picked it up.
\n\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nShortly after the election, I wrote Melanie Philips to rebut her post, Meltdown at the Core<\/a>, in which I felt she attributed the Democratic mid-term victory to the wrong cause. \n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The cause is quite clear:\n<\/p>\n

\n

I say that it’s nothing less than brainwashing. I have several perfectly nice friends and relatives, for example, who voted Democratic without having any idea that 1) the NYT confirmed a week ago that WMD were present; and that 2) the NYT admitted that exposing the classified anti-terror NSA program was wrong. Thus, two of the major canards against Bush that have been used to villify him have been thoroughly disproved: Bush did not ‘lie as people died’, and Bush did not pose a threat to our constitutional rights. Yet that is what many Americans went to the polls believing.\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd I do not think brainwashing is too strong a term. How else to explain the fact that most Americans can read in black and white print that the Dow surpassed 12,000–a historical high–yet can still labor under the false impression the American economy is bad? Repeat a message often enough and it becomes reality. And the message is carried subtly in all media including women’s magazines, children’s books, movies and television shows.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn fact, one major side effect of the Information Age is that history can be re-written on the fly. I’d refer to newsbusters.org<\/a> for countless examples of this effect. You may also have noticed in the last year or two that events appearing in plain view for all to see are subject to constant denial, revision and even disappearance.\n<\/p>\n

\nJohn Kerry, for example, clearly stated that only uneducated people ended up in Iraq. It was as clear as crystal. Within minutes, his utterance was re-written and presented as reality. Later, it was spun as a joke. Half of America has now convinced itself that it was a joke gone bad. The effect is similar to that observed in the Rodney King trial where, by constant repetition, unscrupulous attorneys managed to convince a jury of 12 people to disbelieve the evidence of their senses: from his position on the ground, Mr King was controlling his own beating. I suddenly feel as if I am living in the Soviet Union of Stalin.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn short, the West is at war with those on the Left who own the means of information transmission, Unless we wake up to this alarming fact, it is likely to be the end of us. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThe Baron ends his post on an up-note, forecasting that the pervasive influence of the MSM will end within a decade as it is replaced by a variety of more reliable on line news sources.\n<\/p>\n

\nI am by no means as sanguine. Look at this November 24th post from Philips<\/a> in which she compares three treatments of the same news story:\n<\/p>\n

\n

The BBC has excised all references to the anti-black and antisemitic nature of the attack, all references to the far right and all references to the racist pedigree of the PSG fans. Wrongly identifying the Hapoel supporter as an Israeli rather than a French Jew, it gives the impression this was merely a fight between rival supporters of two nations\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 football teams.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhy?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nBecause no one can stop them.\n<\/p>\n

\nBy failing to recognize that it is engaged in a war of Information with the Left, the Right has lost the first battle. It’s time to wake up.\n<\/p>\n

\n—
\n
\nUpdate: Certain letters and pronouns changed on accounta the Baron is a guy<\/i>.\n<\/p>\n

\n—
\n
\nUpdate 2:  Hugh Hewitt doesn’t get it, either<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n

\n

Though hardly anyone takes the “news” seriously as news, the MSM remains a very effective disseminator of various myths, and myths are stories intended by their tellers to be believed. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nWrong. They take it seriously enough to affect matters of life and death.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an interesting post at Gates of Vienna, the Baron bemoans the ignorance of the American electorate and its consequences–consequences that are rapidly shaping up as tragic: We, the readers of Gates of Vienna, and other members of the VRWC live in a rarefied atmosphere. We\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2re relatively well-informed, and vacuum up information wherever it can be found, not relying on news filters and conventional sources. But most Americans don\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t pay<\/p>\n

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