Fox: The Dumber the Better

There once was an American creed which, to paraphrase, stated the following: to those who rise early, who are honest and who respect their neigbors, the fruits of their labor will bring them rewards.

And then, the era of corporate welfare began in earnest; the era of hysterical governing in which a tactic often used by "communists" in Russia was employed to such a degree that still 15 years later we are stuck in this quagmire of "ungovernability."

The deke used with such amazing success by the hysterical-right (HR, hereinafter) is a simple one: lie about one's enemy with passion, believe your lie, and then force him to disprove the lie, nevertheless however, the stain will be on the dress (thank you Monica for saving it). This has been an amazing tactic used for nearly a century by Russian communists and now today's so-called democratically-elected governing party. In Russia, and in other low-trust societies, you lie and he who has the money to spin that lie and make it "reality" is the ultimate victor for the other guy expends all his energy disproving the lie.

Not My Concern

Russia, however, is not my concern. Despite living here for many years, I have learned one thing: keep your mouth shut in this society. You can have a negative opinion but just don't try to apply that to action or else very quickly you will be identified, isolated and expelled or arrested.

My concern is what I see happening in our America. Yes, we have always had an emotional and slightly hysterical bent to our politics. George Washington hated the media and the opposition so much when he left office he secretly feared that America couldn't last if new rules for governing weren't instituted. Not much was done, though, and today we still see similar tactics being applied by the media and the opposition.

The danger, however, lies not in these tactics but in the collaboration of these tactics. When the media becomes the opposition then we set out into swamps only traveled by the likes of Nazi's and Communists. For 15 years, all media in Nazi Germany were slipping into all aspects of their reporting, from weather forecasts to sales of lady's pantyhose, that Jews were "vermin." Guess what? During the immediate de-Nazification era after the war, Germans from 15 to 30 years of age were absolutely convinced that Jews were vermin. Fed lies by the mass media for over a decade, the lies became the truth.

Under Communism, for 70 years, lies (propaganda) were spilled across every aspect of society: from newspapers, to radio, to TV, to subway walls to park benches, the glory of communism was extolled. True, many knew that these "glories" were not so great. Yet, to this day, there are entire generations who are convinced that it was the American army that committed atrocities during WWII against Germans and Jews; that the firebombing of Dresden was genocide; that presidents are chosen by elite committees behind closed doors and so on. Now, the current system is again spoon-feeding the nation lies, opinions and creating for modern-day Russia, it's reality.

Hysteria for Power's Sake

The HR, the GOPCON Party and Fox-"News" are taking plays from the playbooks of some very dangerous and destructive parties. No good can be gained when a major network news program, with the resources of not just a TV station, but countless internet sites, newspapers and magazines, so vociferously creates a false reality for to the nation about politicians it does not feel fall in line with its political views.

Fox's behaviour is traitorous. The support of the HR for Fox's tactics is based on greed and immediate political gain. The GOPCON wants power so they can go back to ruining our nation through their inherent mismanagement; go back to bankrupting our nation through their ridiculus corporate welfare (tax cuts); so they can return to making America dumber by NOT investing in education, by making it less likely that working Americans can get student loans, by perpetuating our obsession with fossil fuels which leave us stuck in the go-nowhere economic muck we are currently in.

The dangers of letting Fox mangle the truth by inseminating it with lies is that since the birth of Fox, a generation of youth have come to age. These youth now believe these lies to be the truth. Class assaults that under Reagan would have been considered impeachable offenses, thanks to the hysteria and lies stoked by Fox, are today reasons why Republicans get elected in many states. And, the danger lies in the simplistic world of dichtomies: good versus evil, us v. them, black v. white, Yankees v. Phillies. The simpler the argument, the easier it is for people to understand.

Fox is for Dumb People

If we were to look at the places where Fox is considered the Gospel, we would notice that these parts of America are the least educated. The more outrageous and simplistic the lie, the easier it is to understand, the less worry a politician has about his hysteria and lies being questioned by an informed electorate.

Last year in Russia when the chess-genius Gary Kasparov tried to run for president, his followers were beaten and jailed. Why? Because he is smart and his platform was simple: are we better off today than we were 8 years ago? And then, the smart, well-spoken and well-respected, if not adored by many Russians chess champ merely laid out the problems that have gotten worse under Putin. He was chased out of the country. The goverment/party-controlled mass media made him out to be a drug-using, child-molesting lunatic--all lies, but, the truth was created by a the ruling party's media.

Putin feared Kasparov's intelligent and rational critique would result in smart voters, the majority being concentrated in St. Petersburg and Moscow, not turning out to vote on election day. So, he silenced rational, unemotional opposition and he kept the voters in the dark; instead they spent months pondering whether it could be true that their chess hero was really a heroin-addicted pedofile. And, Medvedev won by a landslide. He created emotional responses where none should have been and manipulated them against his potential opponent.

Some Questions

Finally, I would like to ask some questions of my sane and educated breathren on the other side of the political pendulum: can you really think any good will come out of joining the GOP with Fox-News? Can you really think any good will come from making our electorate dumber so they will question less? When will you return to the core values that made our nation strong, sustainable and great?