The cycle is almost complete. The complete take over of truth and the complete removal of debate.The convincing of the general public has been a stellar success. One would be hard pressed to find a corner of America where this does not exist. Where it does exist the natives are most likely armed. This transition has eclipsed Political Correctness and has morphed into Social Doctrine.
I was listening to WTKK one morning and the Lib anchor Jim Brody (sp?) effortlessly chimed about how Republicans are against any one getting healthcare if they have a pre-existing condition. My knowledge of the Healthcare Laws from my interviews on the radio gave me assurance that I knew otherwise. What bothered me was the ability of a major radio Programmer to pontificate something that was categorically false...And get away with it. No one called in, no manager took him to task, even the Co-Anchor tripped onward with the next topic as if nothing had happened.
Not that I was particularly surprised by this moment of on air Newspeak and political demagoguery had occurred. It was the ease that pundits and politicians employ to feed us the Party Line and the nation sub consciously splits itself into their own political mental camp of ideology. Truth, reality and a little research play no part anymore in the quest for understanding complex social issues. By the time the truth comes out it is far too little too late for corrections. Besides the American spectator has already digested the well packaged and subtle misinformation as fact.
Sandra Fluke was a perfect example of this process. Within forty-eight hours of her Congressional testimony (which one Senator was wise enough to un-invite her, but another dingbat saw the chance to polarize the public and skew the facts of the case) she was making the LSM rounds on daytime talk shows to a willing audience. Never mind that this woman was crying poverty about her high cost of birth control, somehow she had the money to jet around the nation to plead her case.
The entire nation was now caught up in false information presented in a false issue, by a false witness. By the time we learned that Sandra Fluke was not a student but a 30 something single woman with a millionaire European lover; a political plant handled by former Obama Sect. Anita Dunn, it was too late. The public perception that Republicans are trying to get into a woman's womb was the catch phrase of the week and was set in stone.
Now we have the Tray-Von shooting in Florida. Al Sharpton of PMSNBC is spearheading all the public outrage. The facts of the case have nothing to do with the public discussion of the case. We will never know the facts at this point. The insistence that this a purely racially motivated murder will overshadow any concrete evidence to the contrary. This may even trump Al's Tawana debacle back in the 90's.
The point is that everything now is just pure misinformation. Nothing we see, or hear is the truth anymore. I think about how long I work to get an interview factually correct. I think about how I have to read, take in and figure out what I am going to write about so I have my story straight. This piece alone has gone through three drafts and is late to go to print!
Another component of this phenomenon is how the public isn't recognizing this happening on a mass level. That these arguments are spoon fed to us already with the concurrent opinions decided. The fact that we divide ourselves into such opposing camps of thought is exactly what is intended.
No one would have heard of the Florida shooting if it was a white man and (again) the WTKK host commented on that idea and agreed! This opened up another concern for me: Does that mean that every time a shooting of a black man occurs it is only racially motivated?. If a black man shoots a white man do we accept the preconceived notion that the white man deserved it? Maybe he was in the wrong neighborhood? Is this the logical result? Are all Intra-Latino shootings and black on black shootings just gang related now?
We can now take what has been building by example and create a model of the phenomenon and apply it to other situations. Just look at how easy it was to interject race into the discussion during the 2008 election. Look how easy the use of race is engaged to deflect the Fast and Furious Hearings. It is false and a blatant distraction, but it works. And it works every single time.
We convince ourselves that there is open and honest debate in our society and it makes our society stronger. I cannot see that as so anymore because there is no open and robust debate, just polarizing of society through tragic and heated events. Just how robust is that debate when the characters and events are hand picked for us to split over. For decades we have heard the same worn out arguments. We keep repeating the divisiveness of the past. If a person takes one minute to step outside from what they are being told that person comes to an enlightening conclusion: That none of this has anything to do with our daily lives nor the running of this nation and the solution to our long term problems. You come to realize that despite the rhetoric, women still get to choose, blacks and whites interact everyday equally, the environment keeps on chugging and we still have to get the car fixed!
No one takes that time. It would mean giving up all we have come to know by the great and powerful Oz. It means rejecting State Doctrine (at your peril, now) and possible ostracizing by one's peers.. It means not fitting in and being called 'subversive', or 'reactionary', or a racist.
But it is very liberating and has the ability to remove a burdensome weight from your shoulders. It opens your eyes, but more importantly, it opens your mind..
....And That Is The Diatribe....
