You've gotta love good propaganda. Even more so, you have to love it when it comes in an email that shows just how little the sender knows about you. Click HERE and you'll see an email I received the other day. It starts out with "I don’t want to start a controversy so I am only forwarding this to those whom I think will agree…or not but not be offended" and then proceeds to state a bunch of facts* that show Evil, Bad Democrats as compared to Good, Wholesome Dubya. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I hate George W. Bush, I hate what he's done to this country domestically and internationally, I hate what he's done to the economy, I hate what he's done with the national debt, and you know that I think of him as the worst president we have ever seen. Ever. Even worse than Richard Milhous Nixon. So, I don't agree, but I'm not offended that some people feel that he is a good president. Amazed, but not offended. I am slightly offended, though, at the thought that I'd even be the slightest interested in the propaganda, and even worse, that I might be swayed by it. And now onto something lighter. I got my grades back from the last semester. I got an A in Research Analysis and an A- in Instructional Technology. I probably would have an A in Technology if I had ever involved myself in the online discussions. Yeah, go figure. I've been blogging since before 2002, but I can't get myself to delve into online discussions. Eh, c'est la vie. Gotta go now, going to dinner at La Caille and my ride's going to be here soon. (No, I don't have that kind of money, it's a school etiquette thing and it's only costing me $28. Tip included.)
*Facts have yet to be confirmed, and I'm not even going to bother. I don't need to argue the truthfulness of the statements, propaganda need not be lies. It just needs to be worded and compared with other facts in a manner that puts forth a specific agenda. For all I know, it's all true. It's what's left out that makes the comparisons invalid.
4 comments:
I never trust e-mails that come from folks trying to sell you on their own POV when they don't know enough not to make a plural with an apostrophe. It just sends out the message: I have all these "facts," but I have no clue what I'm doing. It's like trusting a store clerk who can't add and subtract in his/her head when you tell them something's not right on the receipt. Duh.
And the sender of this in completely ingoring NCLB, W's other huge disaster.
I also notice that the writer manages to leave out all the Republicans who made huge mistakes. How about Herbert Hoover, who led the country straight into the Depression? And, of course, Nixon (although I do think he did well with China in the days before Watergate)?
And why does this author claim that JFK (who was nothing more than a playboy) started the VietNam conflict? Excuse me, but wasn't the whole Dien Ben Fu (spelling?) incident in 1957 with the FRench? Hello? We didn't start the conflict. (Not that I"m defending our part in it, mind you. I agree that we should never have gotten involved.)
gag.
Thank you, yes! You bring up the points that were left out that balance the piece. Things are not black and white, and every president has those mistakes that, if taken alone, make their presidency look like a failure. To determine the success or failure of a presidency, or political party, you have to look at the overall picture, their entire presidency. Overall, Bill Clinton left this country a better place than when he took office. Overall the first Bush pretty much left the country the same as he got it. I think even with Richard Nixon it was a wash - domestically he ripped this country apart, but internationally he left us highly respected. Gerald Ford didn't do much except help us lick our domestic wounds and heal, and stumbled around giving us something to laugh at. Anyway, I digress. It just isn't fair to pick the facts that make your opponent look bad and ingore the rest. Not fair and people who fall for it need to start thinking for themselves. As for trust and not trust, I have an inherent distrust of emails that start with "Keep this going", "Pass this on", "send this to everyone who ...... (insert self serving attribute here)" or "send this to 17,954,365 of your closest friends and riches will befall you." Usuall they get the "Delete" button from me. Gotta use it more often.....
Of course, Ford never meant to be president. He never ran for Pres or VP, if you recall. He was appointed.
'struth. He was the first president that was in no way elected to be in that position. History making.
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