Obama “In His Own Words”: Clues To Recognize Propaganda
October 27, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · 5 Comments
“Propaganda is to democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.” -Noam Chomsky
Today the following disheartening email was forwarded to me, and I feel the need to comment on it plainly.
Here’s the email, followed by my commentary:
Subject Line: Obama Quotes From His Books — In HIS Own Words!
Text:
Check out these quotes from his books yourself. FORWARD TO ALL YOU CAN.
From Dreams of My Father: “I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.”
From Dreams of My Father: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race.”
From Dreams of My Father: “There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.”
From Dreams of My Father: “It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.”
From Dreams of My Father: “I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa , that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.”
And FINALLY the Most Damning one of ALL of them!!!
From Audacity of Hope: “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
If you have never forwarded an e-mail, now is the time to Do so!!! We CANNOT have someone with this type of mentality running our GREAT nation!! I don’t care whether you are a Democrat or Republican, or a Conservative. We CANNOT turn ourselves over to this type of character in a President. PLEASE help spread the word.
P.S. At a recent political rally (media did not report, of course), Obama referenced our “57 states.” Of course we only have 50 states, HOWEVER, there are 57 Muslim controlled countries!!!!
Obama is certainly not my choice for President, but integrity and good judgment dictate that I take a stand against mean-spirited and deceptive propaganda, regardless of the target. I understand and love the passion that motivates such things, but this email is a misguided, propagandized, and highly inappropriate smear campaign. It’s based in fear and it will only perpetuate fear.
Four Clues To Recognize — And Reject — Propaganda From Any Source
More than just condemning the email, however, I want to offer the following four clues for seeing through any mass email and/or advertisement, political or otherwise:
1. Excessive Use of Exclamation Points & Capitalized Letters
Fourteen exclamation points in a 291-word email is a glaring red flag for any message. And any sentence ending in more than one consecutive exclamation point should be immediate cause for deleting the email without further consideration. Anything more than three consecutive exclamation points is just laughable.
Exclamation points and scattering capitalized letters are like swearing: they are “the weak attempt of a feeble mind to express itself forcefully,” in the immortal words of an old friend.
2. Quotes Taken Out of Context
Taking quotes out of context is the worst, most damaging kind of lie. To clarify, I have not read either of the books referenced, yet I’ve been personally criticized — as I’m sure every reader has been — enough to recognize the crippling deception of out-of-context quotes.
Furthermore, the person who wrote this and anyone who forwards it must be unaware of the significant race issues that still plague America today. I recently finished a book project for Len Burnett, the ex-Vice President of Vibe Magazine, and my in-depth research opened my eyes to this fact. I sympathize with Barack’s words, which obviously speak of the confusion of choosing between races in a world where race is still a charged issue. His words speak of the difficult journey of a youth; not the political mind of an adult.
I find nothing unreasonable or objectionable in the referenced quotes; they are perfectly understandable and justifiable in a nation whose original Constitution referenced African-American individuals as being three-fifths of a person. Snopes published this excellent article that illustrates the true context of each quote.
3. Bald-Faced Lies
The “most damning” quote is an outright misrepresentation — to put it plainly, a bald-faced lie: “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” I’ve checked out several sources to verify the true statement, which is as follows:
“Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
In my view, Obama could not be any more right on in this area. I stand fully behind him in relation to this quote. It seems that one of the casualties of the War on Terror is common decency. Every freedom-loving American should hope and pray that we get a President this wise as regards this particular issue.
And who are “the Muslims” anyway? Is that like the “Catholics” or the “Protestants?” Why are we supposed to be so afraid of a person who vows to stand behind “the Muslims?”
4. Anecdotal Inferences With No Proof
I found the “P.S.” to be particularly laughable: “At a recent political rally (media did not report, of course), Obama referenced our “57 states.” Of course we only have 50 states, HOWEVER, there are 57 Muslim controlled countries!!!!”
First of all, we’re given zero proof that this ever happened — in fact, the writer negates our ability to prove or disprove it with the insertion that the “media did not report.” Ah, of course — we’re in the Information Age nine days away from one of the most critical presidential elections in history and not a single media outlet saw fit to report such a blunder, even if just for laughs.
Secondly, even if it did happen, there are infinite possibilities to explain it, other than the bizarre inference. I’d love to question the person who wrote this, as well as anyone who has forwarded it, if they have ever misspoken in their lives. If so, then they are obviously America/whites/Christian-hating, Muslim-loving, power-mongers who are out to ruin the country. It really is that preposterous. And may God and fellow Americans have mercy on the person who ever runs for political office and who has participated in such smear campaigns.
Conclusion
This article is more than an analysis of one petty email; it’s a plea to every reader. Make your judgments of political candidates based on fact, not hearsay and propaganda. Give candidates the benefit of the doubt — they may disagree with you and they may even be wrong, but I believe every one of them are sincerely doing what they feel is best to help America. Nobody, no matter how opposed their views are to ours, deserves the kind of treatment that has been smeared on Barack Obama in this email.
Frankly, I’d rather live in a nation run by Barack Obama than by those who write and spread deceptive propaganda against him. I’ll take open and honest socialists over deceptive, under-handed capitalists any day. At least Obama tells us his policies openly; conservative/Republican deceivers will do and say anything to get the vote, then start the tyranny as soon as they’re in office. (Hmm…sounds strangely familiar.) We have far more to fear from harbingers of propaganda, no matter how “conservative” they may be, than from the likes of Barack Obama.
Make your vote about what you believe in, not about what you’re opposed to. Forget about fighting against Barack Obama or any other candidate and start fighting for your preferred candidate, values, and platform. And never, ever spread propaganda of any form; doing so only makes us become what we’re fighting against.
The moral high ground is the most crucial real estate to maintain in any cause or political campaign. If one’s cause is just, there is never a need for deception.
Shock: We’re Dying From It
October 27, 2008 by Aspen Eggimann · Leave a Comment
“Shock,” said my instructor, “is what we all die from. No matter what kind of injury, sickness, or stress the body has gone through, in the end the cause of death is shock.”
This was in the middle of a ten-day Wilderness First Responder Course in which we had been learning to splint broken bones with sleeping pads and webbing, how to set a broken arm, stop blood flow, and treat heart attacks. But shock was the one of the most important of things to learn how to cure.
Why? Because once you go into shock your survival rate rapidly plummets, and once it reaches a certain point there is no going back. A broken bone can be set, but there isn’t a way to pull someone out of serious shock.
We have heard of culture shock. It’s when you enter a new country or circumstance and where the social rules have changed to such an extent that you find yourself not knowing how to behave or what is going on. But there is a comfort — uou can go home, back to a place where things are familiar and the shock will leave.
Future Shock
But there is a new kind of shock: future shock. This is when events, terms, technology, and nations are changing at such a rapid rate that we can’t keep up with it. We are left confused and unsure about how to behave.
Alvin Toffler wrote his book Future Shock in 1970. Reading it today he sounds like a prophet. His predictions of what the future would be like for those living in these times, and his concerns for the stability of our nation and communities, are almost dead on.
The term “future shock” was coined by Toffler in an article written for Horizon in 1965. He then spent the next five years studying the idea and came away with “two disturbing convictions”:
First, that “future shock” is a real sickness from which increasingly large numbers are already suffering. This is not just an idea; it is felt by everyone but recognized by few. Children that have grown up in an ever-changing society don’t know a difference and yet still don’t know how to adapt.
Secondly, Toffler was “…appalled by how little is actually known about adaptivity. In the most rapidly changing environment to which man has ever been exposed…we remain pitifully ignorant of how the human animal copes.” We don’t know how to adapt. Technology goes out of date faster then we can keep up. Definitions of education, work, religion, morality, sex, country, and patriotism change. With this continual shift we are left preparing for the future before it comes. The future is crashing upon us before the present is even lived.
“Many of us have a vague ‘feeling’ that things are moving faster. Doctors and executives
alike complain that they cannot keep up with the latest developments in their fields. Hardly a meeting or conference takes place today without some ritualistic oratory about ’the challenge of change.’ Among many there is an uneasy mood — a suspicion that change is out of control. Not everyone, however, shares this anxiety. Millions sleepwalk their way through their lives as if nothing had ever changed, and as if nothing ever will.”
Change is the constant and increasing dilemma in our lives. No matter what direction change is taking us the rate of change itself is astounding. And it is only in our understanding of it and our ability to adapt that will keep us from shock of the future.
We have the ability now to channel change. What we say, think and believe can impact literally thousands within moment, thanks to technology. Days when it took generations or thousands of years for an idea to take hold are gone as information and communications fly through cyberspace.
What does all this change mean for our society as a whole? What about the structure of nations, families, jobs and science? Will we be able to reinvent ourselves for the future, before the futures comes?
In 1970 Alvin Toffler wrote, “In the three short decades between now and the twenty-first century, millions of ordinary, psychologically normal people will face an abrupt collisions with the future. Citizens of the worlds richest and most technologically advanced nations, many of them will find it increasingly painful to keep up with the incessant demand for change that characterizes our time. For them, the future will have arrived too soon.”
That future is here, and it has come to soon. But it need not put us into shock, we can reinvent the way we do things and lead out in the direction change is taking us.
Recovering From Shock: Three Treatment Steps
1. Embrace It.
The first step to adapting to future shock is acknowledging the rapidity of change. Sleepwalking through life will only put us further into shock. Change is exciting, it is an opportunity and it is happening whether we like it or not. Embrace it. Enjoy this age and take full advantage of the opportunities it presents. Enjoy the journey and don’t fall into believing nothing is happening. Instead, believe that anything can happen.
2. Reinvent, Reinvent, Reinvent
We may not be able to control the change that is taking place or the effect it is having on our lives, but we can reinvent the way we do things. Attempts at this have taken place with the ever-increasing fashion of “going green.” Going back isn’t an option; going forward and reinventing is. The way we do things from how we look at money to how we build houses, get an education, vote, and use energy can have astounding impact on the direction the future is taking us.
Taking control over everyday products such as food, energy, entertainment and leisure will have a huge impact on our ability to handle change. We are victims of change when we are reliant upon outside sources that feed, clothe and house us. By using our time and resources to take more control over the future of our lives we will be directing what kind of change impacts us. This isn’t a call to live in the woods unconnected with the rest of the world. It is simply an idea that perhaps we can limit future shock by limiting the outsourcing of our everyday lives.
3. Get Educated.
It has been said that to be educated is not to know everything worth knowing but to be able to find it and sift it out from everything that is not. Educate yourself in technology, current events, and sciences. Educate yourself about the future. But also educate yourself in the past. The understanding of history and philosophy will make the current rapidity of events understandable. Education gives us tools to be able to see patterns in our own day and prepare for it and the understanding of where ideas and thoughts come from and their validity. Education will be one of the greatest tools to avoid future shock.
As Alvin Toffler wrote, “Future shock will not be found in Index Medicus or in any listing of psychological
abnormalities. Yet, unless intelligent steps are taken to combat it, millions of human beings will find themselves increasingly disoriented, and progressively incompetent to deal rationally with their environments.”
Future shock is here. Do you have the treatment?
Move the Cause of Liberty by (1) subscribing to the Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and (2) pledging your Life, Liberty, and Sacred Honor to the Cause by signing the Declaration of Dependence.
Bucking the System: My Choice For President
October 25, 2008 by Ryan Heneise · 4 Comments
Guest Contributor
(Note: The Cause of Liberty does not endorse particular political candidates or parties. We do, however, support independent, insightful thinking that leads to greater freedom, which we feel this article represents. Enjoy!)
I love change. I love hope. And I love choices. But something about the way our electoral process works really rubs me the wrong way.
Sure, it’s great that we get to vote for our President. But someone out there –- someone with power –- has picked my two choices for me, and for the past year has been hammering it into my head that if I don’t choose one of these two prescribed choices, then I’m throwing my vote away.
You know what I realized? Aside from minor policy differences, like what percentage of a tax cut the middle class will get, and whether we should invade this country or that country, there really is very little difference between the two mainstream candidates. Both Senators Obama and McCain voted in support of FISA, the Patriot Act, and the Bailout Bill, three of the most odious and nefarious acts of legislation that have done incredible damage to the American way.
Neither of these two candidates provide any real solutions, and when put to the test, we see that in the end, a vote for McCain is the same as a vote for Obama; and neither will bring about any real change or mitigate or destroy the corruption that now gnaws away at the character of our government, nor will they stop the cancerous expansion of government powers that make our current government look and act more and more like the government of King George, from whom we won our Independence.
So if there is no real difference between the two, and I’m only voting for one or the other because I want to be on the winning side, or because I want to vote for one so the other won’t win, then I am truly wasting my vote.
What’s a patriot to do?
Well, did you know that there are actually six noteworthy candidates (plus a few others) for president this election? “But,” you say, “none of these candidates can win. Why bother voting at all?” You’re right, we might as well just give up. No sense in playing if we can’t be on the winning team, right?
Look, the whole country is saying that. Everybody is just rolling over and letting the political establishment have its way with them. If we all just comply then we’re going to get exactly what people with power want to give us. That’s what the American Revolution was about folks!
In a way, the American Revolution continues to this day. The fight against tyranny and oppression will go on as long as there are good and evil (and I don’t mean the “axis of evil” – I mean real evil, and people who would use power to harm other people). As long as we’re here on this earth we each have a responsibility to fight to maintain our freedom and our individual rights and to preserve and protect our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
The Constitution (read it, it’s good) limits the government’s power, and it grants the government power only by the consent of the governed. Our responsibility as citizens is to give that consent, to withhold our consent to tyranny, and to keep the government accountable by electing officials that respect the people and their position as representatives of the people.
One of the most obvious ways that we fulfill this responsibility is by choosing our executive, our President. If we believe in the Constitution, then we ought to elect a president who shares our reverence of liberty, freedom, and the Constitution, and who has demonstrated an understanding of these tenets, and who will do the most to uphold these precious things.
That is why I have decided to support Chuck Baldwin for President of the United States.
Baldwin does not have as much political experience as Obama or McCain, but in this case I think that might be a good thing. He certainly is not part of the political establishment. Based on his writings, his history, and his character recommendations, I believe that Chuck Baldwin is the candidate best suited to execute the office of President of the United States.
Email This Post
Ryan Heneise grew up as a missionary kid in Haiti. He’s lived in West Virginia, Florida, Chile, and California, and now resides with his wife and two young children in Texas. A programmer/entrepreneur by trade and non- profit aficionado by heritage, Ryan’s latest venture is Donor Tools, a donor management product for non-profits.
Move the Cause of Liberty by (1) subscribing to the Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and (2) pledging your Life, Liberty, and Sacred Honor to the Cause by signing the Declaration of Dependence.
What Does it Mean to Be “American?”
October 24, 2008 by Mike Wilson · Leave a Comment
Representative Michele Bachmann from Minnesota recently accused (and she was not the first) Barack Obama of holding positions that are ”anti-American.” What did she mean? In order to define what it means to be “anti-American” we should define what it means to be “American” and use examples from history to see if our judgment is fair or even accurate.
Was Patrick Henry “American?” Was he who emphatically and boldly challenged: “…but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” American? Or did his adamant opposition to the Constitution as it was written in 1787-88 make him “anti-American?”
What does it mean to be “American?” The fundamental philosophies and ideas that undergird the founding of the American Republic are the following (feel free to add suggestions): 1) equality before the law; 2) national and local sovereignty; 3) powerful self-governance and self-determination; 4) peace through strength; 5) disdain for imperialism and privilege; 6) “light on the hill” example of freedom; and 7) a willingness to fight against tyranny and oppression in all its forms.
Which of these principles is Barack Obama opposed to? How many of these principles have been not only ignored, but trampled by the policies of the outgoing Republican administration? Which “America” is Rep. Bachmann talking about?
Was Henry David Thoreau being “anti-American” in his willingness to be jailed for his refusal to pay a poll tax used to finance the Mexican-American War, which he believed to be unjust?
Was Martin Luther King Jr. “anti-American” when he helped “freedom riders” show Americans the absolute “un-American-ness” of “separate, but equal” and segregation?
When will we stop questioning one another’s “American-ness,” or patriotism? I am as grateful for those whose patriotism is demonstrated in fighting with truth and justice to protect my rights at home from an ever-increasingly invasive government as I am for those who fight with weapons with defend my life. What gives Rep. Bachmann the right to question anyone’s “American-ness”, especially when America is made up of thinking individuals who see things distinctly from their neighbor?
I challenge you to find someone whose motives you have questioned, then make a conscious effort to trust their motives, their love for their country, and the hope they have for its people.
Email This Post
Move the Cause of Liberty by (1) subscribing to the Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and (2) pledging your Life, Liberty, and Sacred Honor to the Cause by signing the Declaration of Dependence.
Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
Changing the World…
October 17, 2008 by Aspen Eggimann · 6 Comments
…One comic at a time.
Look on the bright side of our economic crash, at least now we can see where we are! What do you see? Maybe it takes a crash to get a better view of the world around us. Now lets climb down and start heading in the right direction.
Attacks always come from where you least expect it. Being big and tough to the rest of the world doesn’t mean we can’t destroy ourselves from the inside.
The reality is that as a nation we are in dire need of change, real change. We are on the fast track to a dangerous and unstable times. If you don’t like the reality of our situation you can always choose not to accept it.
Or, you can help begin a revolution against apathy and ignorance. Don’t be selective about the reality you accept. Accept reality for what it is and allow your action to change it.
Need I say more?
Move the Cause of Liberty by (1) subscribing to the Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and (2) pledging your Life, Liberty, and Sacred Honor to the Cause by signing the Declaration of Dependence.
Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
-
Free Newsletter Subscription
Subscribe to The Sentinel, a free weekly newsletter boldly illuminating the principles of freedom in a darkening nation, and receive two free gifts. Your personal information will never be shared.
Subscribe To The Cause Of LibertyPolls
Loading ... Loading ... Loading ...