Friday, May 28, 2010

The last time I wrote, it was about the baneful biases that are inherent in party politics, and how people will subscribe to them almost as if they have been brainwashed. In a way they have been.

Big Media works hand-in-hand with party politics, nowadays. Fox News caters to the Conservative Right, and MSNBC caters to the Liberal Left, and all the others seem to be pandering to some demographic or another in order to get the best ratings and advertisers. There is no truly neutral media news outlet that will simply cover the news and let the viewer make their own decision.

Theodore Roosevelt said, in the early days of the American newspaper industry: There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful." However, “spin” has become the watchword of the Modern Media, making “truth” relative. Some outlets spin to the left, some spin to the right, all lie by omission, and all use propaganda to make the others look like liars. No news channel, no matter what they claim is “fair and balanced.” The propaganda of the news channels is nothing more than a way to keep their core audience from going to another source of information.

This is especially true of the “party-approved” news channels of Fox News, and MSNBC. Fox, as I said, caters to the Conservative Right, and may be considered the “party station” of the Republicans. MSNBC caters to the Liberal Left, and may be considered the “party station” of the Democrats. They both use propaganda, lying by omission, and other such manipulation tactics to lead America by the nose, and keep the people of America divided against each other.

I have seen it multiple times on the Internet where people deride each other for nothing more than the news channel they happen to prefer. It may seem like a small thing, but it is another example of how Party Politics divides us and allows the politicians of BOTH parties to keep us conquered.

As I said in my last entry, like-minded people prefer the company of people who think exactly like them, but the proliferation of bias in the media has allowed people to enter into echo-chambers of similar thought where outside ideas are not only unwelcome but are often considered nothing less than absolute evil. I would say that this has reached the point that the members of these closed-off groups have a truly skewed idea of what constitutes absolute evil to them. Both sides seem to agree that Hitler, and the Nazi party were evil, naturally, but they will often attempt to revise history to include the so-called “evils” that the other Party is supposed to be perpetuating to Hitler’s list of crimes.

Doesn’t it dilute the effect of Hitler, and his historical evil, when the comparison is overused? If the other side is as bad as you say, the evidence should stand on its own, without bringing Hitler or Nazi’s into the argument. Have we not had enough of the logical fallacy of Reducto ad Hitlerum?

The truly evil thing, in my opinion, is the manipulation of the American people by the media. We are being herded like sheep, what we see and hear are being dictated by a very few giving us the illusion of variety. This control of what we see and hear is particularly insidious, because it ultimately controls what we THINK.

It is time we break the chains.

Party politics: Business as usual in Washington, and the capitals of all fifty states, but it was not how the Founding Fathers envisioned the government being run. In fact, the premier Founding Father, George Washington, railed against the spirit of party that has so polarized the country. Party politics is dividing America against itself, convinces Americans to follow their party leaders like sheep, and marginalize any dissenters who would draw ideas from both sides.

While it may be a human instinct to gather in groups that have the similar beliefs and ideas, party politics tend to take this instinct to the extreme. There is a fostering of mindless tribalism that makes the party members opposed to any idea that comes from the outside. Propaganda is used to its greatest extent to vilify the other party. Slander, false information, and vile stereotypes are used to foster an “us verses them” mentality that closes the mind, and precludes any criticism of the party line. Dissent is met with shunning, or being labeled a traitor to the cause. And it is even to the point that the members of the tribe are encouraged to only get their news and editorials from party approved media. The opinions of the party supporters are not made through their own thoughts and research, but spoon-fed to them, and repeated until they are convinced that they thought of it themselves.

This is indoctrination of the worst sort, because it is perpetrated by parents, by community leaders, by teachers, and by the media. It has been this way, it has “always” been this way, and this is how it will stay.

Don’t you think it’s time that this changed?

George Washington wrote on his farewell address:

“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”

The First President of the United States warned against the effects of party politics as he left the office, and his warning fell on deaf ears. Parties were formed, polarity was fostered, and battle lines were drawn.

The baneful effects of the spirit of party are most evident on the Internet, where assured by the anonymity of the username, and hiding behind a psudo-patriotic alias, the mudslinging occurs on both sides. I have seen both parties call the other evil destroyers of the American Way of Life. They portray themselves as glorious saviors, wrapping themselves in the flag, calling upon their fellow countrymen to choose a side, when both sides are equally guilty of causing this country harm.

It is time to drop party politics like the bad idea it is. Aren’t you tired of being fleeced by the politicians? Then it is time to stop being the parties’ sheep. Do your own researches, find your own facts, remove the party-approved blinders, discover both sides of the story, and choose for yourself the POLICIES that will make this country great. Parties have done nothing but divide, and the politicians have conquered.