Disinformation
A very close friend of mine, whose name, ethnicity, sexual persuasion, religion and gender will not be disclosed, is admittedly the polar opposite of me concerning all things political. A lifelong, committed liberal Democrat who is in lock-step agreement with all things left, this friend honestly believes:
- Hillary Clinton genuinely cares about the less fortunate
- Hillary Clinton is “one of us” whose life mission is to make our lives better, and has dedicated her life’s work to achieve these ends
- Barack Obama improved the United States’ reputation and standing in the world, and our relationships with foreign countries, when in 2008, he went around the world apologizing for all of the transgressions of George W. Bush, and that he deserved the Nobel Prize for doing so.
- That Michelle Obama is the most beautiful and graceful first lady who ever occupied the White House, and has done more for improving the lives of Americans than anyone else who has ever been first lady
- That the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, will ensure that all people will have unfettered access to health care, which should be an absolute right guaranteed by our government
- That anyone who is a member of the Tea Party should be silenced
- That the only bias in the news media is Fox News
- That George W. Bush, despite having both an BA in History from Yale and an MBA from Harvard, gained both degrees by having his father bribe both of these Ivy League universities and is, in fact, a demented individual with a sub-par IQ
- That anyone who favors any Republican running for office hates women, minorities and children
- That anyone who is a member of the NRA, or who stands for the preservation of the 2nd Amendment, wants children to have unfettered access to automatic assault rifles
- That Richard M. Nixon, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should have been sentenced to capital punishment for crimes against humanity
I could go on with a list of what my friend believes to be absolutely true, but you get the picture…this person has bought into each and every lie that has been thrust upon him/her by the likes of MSNBC, the major networks, the Democratic National Committee, Joy Behar, Rosie O’Donnell, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, Al Sharpton and Ben Affleck. All of which brings about the question of “Why?”
Why would this person, who is highly successful in their career, and who has benefitted from a good education, believe all of this to the extent that he/she does?
Answer- Propaganda.
History tells us that when propaganda is repeatedly thrust upon the otherwise uninformed- you know, the type that say they are not interested in politics- that eventually, it becomes an orthodoxy that cannot be questioned. The most notorious example of this fact is Adolph Hitler, whose Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels manipulated German newspapers, magazines, film-makers, and radio to spew Nazi lies to an extent unforeseen before- thus giving credence to the passage in Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” that “people will believe the big lie before they will believe the small one”.
The only difference between Germany in the 1930s, and America, today, is the message being proselytized- the means are precisely the same. The establishment news media, Hollywood, network television, newsprint and the entertainment industry were, and are, very much “in the tank” for Obama and will just as assuredly be “in the tank” for Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, or anyone else who is the Democratic nominee in 2016. Based upon that fact alone, the GOP would have to nominate the very reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, in order to thwart such a collective onslaught of left-wing co-conspirators and thereby have any chance at actually being elected.
And in the face of such an onslaught of absolute disinformation, I can safely assume that my very close friend will not be swayed, otherwise, and it is this very fact that somehow bothers me, and should bother all of you, to no end.
-Drew Nickell, 9 October 2014
© 2014 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved