Turn off your TV
You May be Brainwashed by Corporate Media if You:
Forget Red vs. Blue -- It's the Educated vs.
People Easily Fooled by Propaganda
Millions of Americans live in a non-reality-based belief system informed by childish clichés - they can barely differentiate between lies and truth.
We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a
print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the
intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which
constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This
America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has
severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate
between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and
cliches. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection.
This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban,
believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into
radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities..............more
You May be Brainwashed by Corporate
Media if You:
... believe the 5 corporations who own almost all of the
media in the U.S. are liberal.
... believe $300 billion of U.S. tax money, allocated for the war and
reconstruction in Iraq is actually going to Iraq .
... are unaware Iraq had 650 million barrels of oil in reserve just before the
war in Iraq .
... are unaware at least $8.8 billion is known to be missing in Iraqi oil
revenue from the period the U.S. was in control of Iraq .
... are unaware 198 million in Iraqi dollars is missing from the Iraq treasury
from the period the U.S. was in control of Iraq .
... are unaware that war is exceptionally profitable for a small number of
investors.
... believe Halliburton's no-bid contracts have nothing to do with former CEO,
now Vice President Dick Cheney.
... are unaware that the Iraq war is the biggest case of war profiteering in
human history.
... believe Saddam Hussein or Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, Al Qaeda or
Osama bin Laden.
... are unaware the U.S. has killed more than 10,000 innocent women and
children in Iraq with cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions.
... believe depleted uranium weapons are not radioactive or deadly weapons of
mass destruction (they are 12% less radioactive than nuclear weapons grade
uranium and very deadly).
... believe wealthy, warmongers can also be true Christians.
... are unaware stem cell research threatens the pharmaceutical industry by
curing and preventing diseases which drug companies profit from by treating
with drugs.
... are unaware the pharmaceutical industry is based entirely on treatment and
is threatened by cures and prevention.
... are unaware the Food and Drug Administration does NO testing of food or
drugs. They only set guidelines and review the testing corporations do of
their own products.
... are unaware the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act has been
're- estimated' to cost U.S. taxpayers $1.3 Trillion (not the original $243
billion or the 'adjusted' $400 billion), and only pharmaceutical corporations
and HMOs benefit from the increase.
... are unaware the Boston Tea party was a protest against corporate
corruption (East India Company).
... are unaware our founding fathers intentionally made sure that corporations
had no power over people or our government.
... are unaware corporations have fought aggressively and systematically over
the past 200 years to increase their power and influence over our government.
... are unaware U.S. corporations are now protected under the 14th amendment
as a legal 'person.'
... are unaware the definition of fascism is: 'The marriage of corporation and
state' -- Benito Mussolini.
... are unaware well known U.S. corporate interests attempted a military coup
against Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.
... are unaware most corrupt and wasteful government projects are run
primarily by corporate contractors.
... are unaware 'less government' means paying corporate contractors three
times what we pay government workers to do the same work.
... are unaware American corporations behave very differently in other
countries.
... are unaware Enron and others were NOT investigated until they collapsed
under the weight of their own greed.
... are unaware Bush's massive tax cuts were invested overseas to build sweat
shops, factories and other facilities, where our jobs have been outsourced.
... are unaware outsourcing American jobs weakens labor unions and keeps wages
low and corporate profits high .
... are unaware weak enforcement of immigration laws lowers wages in the U.S.
and increases corporate profits.
... are unaware 'Free Trade' means 'Slave Wages' to poor people in Honduras,
Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Burma, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Colombia,
Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and others.
... believe America is hated all over the world because of our freedom.
... believe the massive U.S. national debt (now $7,786,000,000,000) created by
Republican presidents Reagan, Bush and Bush does not seriously threaten the
future of our children and grandchildren.
... are unaware massive national debt ensures the expansion of poverty, which
keeps wages low, which increases corporate profits.
... are unaware widespread poverty keeps wages low and corporate profits high.
... are unaware weak gun control laws perpetuate violence in poor
neighborhoods which expands poverty, reduces wages and increases corporate
profits.
... are unaware abortions go down only when we reduce poverty, expand
healthcare and improve education.
... are unaware that making abortion illegal expands poverty which reduces
wages and increases corporate profits.
... believe the Michael Jackson trial deserved more news coverage than the
genocide of 400,000 people in Darfur , Sudan.
... believe Social Security is the biggest priority in America .
... are unaware privatizing Social Security would be a massive give away to
experienced Wall Street investors that would also destabilize Social Security.
... are unaware that NOT funding 'No Child Left Behind' is dismantling funding
for schools in poor neighborhoods, which expands poverty, lowers wages and
increases corporate profits.
... are unaware the Healthy Forests Initiative has led to massive clear
cutting of prime lumber and almost none of the forest fire prevention that it
was sold on.
... are unaware the Clear Skies Initiative has increased pollution.
... are unaware Tort Reform will absolve corporations of massive negligent
liabilities for things like asbestos exposure, pollution, mercury poisoning,
hazardous waste, mad cow disease and all sorts of dangerous products and
practices.
... are unaware mercury pollution (mostly from coal fired power plants and
medical vaccines) has caused an epidemic of Autism, ADD and ADHD in the U.S.
... are unaware the Bush administration is dismantling three decades of US
environmental protection.
... believe global warming is a rumor or conspiracy.
... are unaware 'Global Warming' is causing colder weather because the melting
ice caps are cooling the gulf stream.
... believe the science of evolution is less valid than literal fundamentalist
interpretation of creationism.
... believe the UN scandals could have taken place without the largest, most
influential member and host nation being involved.
... believe making a war monger ambassador to the UN will help prevent more
wars.
... are unaware that expanding equal rights to any segment of the population
(including gay people) also expands economic opportunity and puts pressure on
wages, which would reduce corporate profits.
If you believe Fox News is fair and balanced, you have been brainwashed by
corporate owned media.
independent-media.tv/item.cfm
[independent-media.tv/item.cfm]=
TRUE Government
The ten steps or stages to the evolution of a true democracy.
Slavery, serfdom, and all forms of human bondage must disappear.
Unless a free people are educated -- taught to think intelligently and plan wisely -- freedom usually does more harm than good.
Liberty can be enjoyed only when the will and whims of human rulers are replaced by legislative enactments in accordance with accepted fundamental law.
Representative government is unthinkable without freedom of all forms of expression for human aspirations and opinions.
No government can long endure if it fails to provide for the right to enjoy personal property in some form. Man craves the right to use, control, bestow, sell, lease, and bequeath his personal property.
Representative government assumes the right of citizens to be heard. The privilege of petition is inherent in free citizenship.
It is not enough to be heard; the power of petition must progress to the
actual management of the government.
Representative government presupposes an intelligent, efficient, and universal electorate. The character of such a government will ever be determined by the character and caliber of those who compose it. As civilization progresses, suffrage, while remaining universal for both sexes, will be effectively modified, regrouped, and otherwise differentiated.
9. Control of public servants.
No civil government will be serviceable and effective unless the citizenry possess and use wise techniques of guiding and controlling officeholders and public servants.
10. Intelligent and trained representation.
The survival of democracy is dependent on successful representative government; and that is conditioned upon the practice of electing to public offices only those individuals who are technically trained, intellectually competent, socially loyal, and morally fit. Only by such provisions can government of the people, by the people, and for the people be preserved.