Showing posts with label propaganda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label propaganda. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

The next Republican meme

About a year ago I noticed Steve had his clock radio tuned to whatever hate radio station that you'll find Limbaugh because I started waking up to the lies and obfuscations of the man. Steve told me it helps him to wake up faster because he doesn't want to hear that.

It doesn't really help Steve wake up faster: either he doesn't hear it and keeps sleeping, or he keeps hitting the snooze button.

It does help me wake up faster, and I get the dubious lesson in the latest Republican meme.

A couple of months ago or so I woke up to Rush savoring some comment about the "Islamo-Fascists". He was probably ranting about anti-war folks coddling them in the same breath. That was the first I heard the term. I told Steve I figured that was going to be the next big Republican propaganda term. Sure enough, not much later I heard that W used it in a speech, and the pseudo-news was crawling with the term, and now of course the lefties are whining that it's a term that means nothing. Fascists were and are not religious extremists. But hey, if you're going to start calling religious extremists willing to allow innocent people to die for their cause 'fascists', you'd better start talking about the Christo-Fascists that have taken over this country. Or would that be Christiano-Fascists?

It was also my belief that Rush was using this term because too many of us were looking at the Bush regime as fascists. Steal the word, and detractors can't say it any more. They do this all the time. There is no other reason that Bush would say in a speech that we are a nation "addicted to oil". Go here for an interesting dialog on this nation becoming a fascist state, including my comments. They also obscure that they do this propaganda deliberately by trying to point out the first time the term was used. I read somewhere that someone first used the term 'Islamic fascist' in the 90s. Big whoop. They're deliberately marketing it now to keep some kind of support for their perpetual wars.

So, the latest meme this morning, a tried and true [not] meme the Republicans trot out just before elections. Will we never hear the end of it? Limbaugh was saying this generation coming up, weaned on 90210 and the expectation that they would get $400,000/year jobs just like that are going to be taxed all out of it and put in the poorhouse by the Democrats. Oh good grief. Democrats are going to raise taxes.

And the next generation aren't going to have their Beemers because of it. Like the robber-baron companies that tell the Decider what to decide have nothing to do with it. Like war on several fronts has nothing to do with it. Like no-bid wartime deals for those robber-baron companies have nothing to do with it. Like a lack of universal health care has nothing to do with it. Like a lack of universal access to continuing education has nothing to do with it. Like nickel and dime jobs have nothing to do with it.

Nope. Democrats are going to raise taxes, and this is the reason the economy will stink if you vote for Dems instead of Repubs. Steve turned it off. I took my shower. I came back, and Steve turned it back on to see if the mouthpiece of the robber-barons was still talking about it. He was.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

"Shocking" History lesson from Right-Wingers

More often than not, I get far right propaganda news for my "polyamory" google news alerts. Hmm, maybe I could start keeping tabs. Today, score 1 for sex advice column result for "open relationship". Score 1 for conservative propaganda for "polyamory". World Net Daily makes me wanna go search for porn just to clear the ucky feelings out of my brain (not that I do that). I mean really...the headline today: "American Hiroshima" Puh-lease.

Today's spider found ACLU's Shocking Legacy for me. According to WND, the American Civil Liberties Union had "strong socialist and communist ties." Oh no! They've always been trying to "destroy America." While I know Margaret Sanger committed illegal abortions, I highly doubt she was a "passionate advocate of eugenics" in the way we've come to understand eugenics as forced sterilization. As I understand it, she worked to give women a choice. WND has given me a nice outline for historical research should I be so inclined, but I will trust my reading, not theirs.

So I try finding Alan Sears' claim that the ACLU "has expressed support for polygamy and polyamory". Some creative googling yielded no results for 'polyamory' on ACLU's website. Way back in 91, some plural wives were supported by ACLU in Utah...this seems to constitute the 'support' for polygamy. He cites the organization's "policy guide" whatever that is. (Why can't I even find it in Worldcat?) Pretty nifty trick, quoting something others can't find, and saying what you like about it.

Even though I can't find a clearcut support for polyamory, thanks, WND, you've inspired me to look into joining the ACLU!