To Be Lied To: Has It Become Normal?

[Snoggera]

Is it now expected, and all we have to do is respond with exasperation and indignation?

What happened to accountability? What happened to impeachment? What happened to the rule of law?

What happened to people's sensibilities?

[punpirate]

1. For me, it's that...

... the public doesn't even have enough information about the politics of this country to know they're being lied to. As one columnist mentioned in the last few days (and others have in the past), politics in this country is being treated by the media as entertainment, and that it's easy to bend rules of fairness when the news people concentrate on a candidate's choice of clothes, for example.

If that's what the people are getting as "politics," how are they ever going to understand who Doug Feith is and what he does? The Defense Undersecretary for Policy sounds to them like he's sharpening pencils and passing out paperclips, not that he's implementing the creation of a working group, the Office of Special Plans, the reason for which was to embellish and distort (and possibly, forge) intelligence data to be used to take the country to war.

People's perceptions are in part a function of the news they get, and they haven't been getting much news, or time to digest it. If they're just scanning headlines, or looking at Fox's banner at the bottom of the TV screen, has their understanding of the political process improved?

Cheers.

[Snoggera]

2. I think one thing I am profoundly upset about

is that people have to keep making excuses for other peoples ignorance. I am done with that. There are intelligent, well-educated people making the choice for fascism, and there is no explaining that away.

(thanks for your thoughtful response!)

[punpirate]

4. There's an old adage...

... that people always vote in their own self-interest--yep, there are people, intelligent people, who will vote for Bush's election, because they believe it to be in their self-interest. They think they're going to do better with Bush around.

Right now, it might be well to ask those folks if they're better off with a paranoid schizophrenic who believes God speaks through him....

[BayouBengal07]

3. Correct.

There is so much that people don't know. Its a shame too. I have a friend who is "too cool to vote", says, "fuck Kerry, as long as Bush hasn't harmed me he stays in the White House." He's liberal if you scratch his surface, but he just doesn't give a shit about politics!

That's why there are people like us (and others on the other side of the political isle) who devote a hefty chunk of our lives to following politics and keeping our leaders in check.