Morning Cuppa Moral Lessons

[Hissyspit]

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/09/20/morning-cuppa-moral-lessons

Morning Cuppa Moral Lessons
By: Scarecrow (at Fire Dog Lake)

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear . . .
You’ve got to be taught from year to year . . .

Wednesday’s New York Times featured a front page picture of a group of horrified school girls who were watching people being shot and killed. The caption underneath read,

“Palestinian girls huddled in a school hallway yesterday in Nablus as Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen clashed. A solder and a militant died. . . ”

Soldier versus gunmen. Soldier versus militant. We don’t know whether the soldiers were peace keepers or part of an invading/occupying army; were the gunmen/militants “terrorists” or “resistance” and “patriots” defending their homeland? Words matter, and in this simple, seemingly innocent caption, which might have appeared in any US newspaper, we are already conditioned to make certain assumptions. It is subtle here, but the bias is persistent and pervasive throughout our media.

On cable channels and right wing talk shows and blogs, it moves from subtle to suggestive to blatantly racist and eliminationist. But the lesson is always the same: One side is always legitimate and moral; the other is always criminal. One has the right to be dominant; the other can be crushed and eliminated without moral qualms.

It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear . . .
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

For six years, we’ve heard Administration language calculated to inflame contempt and/or fear of Middle Eastern Muslims. They are Islamists, or Islamic extemists, or Islamofascists. Once we invaded and occupied Iraq, those who resisted became insurgents, militant extremists, terrorists and now al Qaeda. Never the resistance to occupation; never patriots in their own countries or heroes to their own people. They are “the enemy.”

In numerous speeches, the President has identified not just al Qaeda, but also Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorists. His descriptions typically describe them as cruel and inhuman, as bloodthirsty, merciless killers. He makes no distinctions, and Fox News adds none.

Last summer, Secretary Rice showed complete indifference to Israel’s efforts to eliminate everyone connected with Hezbollah, even if it meant killing hundreds of Lebanese and the destruction of Lebanese towns and cities. All of that was morally acceptable, she explained, because eliminating terrorists was fine, the “birth pangs” of a new order — a New Order in which it is illegitimate to be or identify with Hezbollah.

- snip -

You’ve got to be taught . . .
Before it’s too late!
Before you are six, or seven, or eight . . .
To hate all the people your relatives hate. . . .

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