When Critical Thinking, Separating Facts and Truth From Myths is Just Too Inconvenient–The Power of Misinformation Part D’Uh

Shortly after the G20 fiasco, I published a piece, “Never Underestimate the Power of Misinformation”. I thought I would revisit this subject today.

It’s all too easy to misinform the masses. The right has it perfected.  Over used buzz words, often misused like “socialism”. It’s even more fun when they make it interchangeable with “fascism” which, of course, if anyone took the time to look up the definitions of each term, it couldn’t be further from the truth.  Other buzz words like “freedom” while ideologically driven governments backed by their corporate friends and pushed by lobbiests, get more and more authoritarian.

Catch phrases like “War on Terror” or “tough on crime”  to lull the masses into a false sense of security.  “Freedom of speech” when it really means only when you agree with the government and the message du jour, otherwise Shut the fuck up, as the cartoon over at Dr Dawg’s demonstrates so perfectly.

Messages designed to get folks angry and frightened are the order of the day and it’s working like a charm.  However, has anyone tried to stop and ask one of those angry frightened people why they’re that way? Bet they wouldn’t they would be able to give a designer original personalized answer, but rather, simply regurgitate what they heard on Fox News or read in The NattyPO or Sun Media.  Good luck trying to inform them properly, because there’s another buzz word for those of us who even attempt to correct their misinformation even with audio visuals to support our argument; it’s called “elite”.  “Elitists” are evul too in both the US and Canada. As such, the dumbing down continues and it continues with great ease.

Jeffrey Simpson at the Grope & Fail, wrote a very good article yesterday regarding many in the US and Canada “being lost in the fog of misinformation”.  Go read his article. It is indeed one of those rare times I actually agree with him and the reason why I’m publishing another post regarding the power of misinformation.

Simpson says that many Canadians, particularly Quebecers don’t know the Economic Action plan (actually, that could be because much of the stimulus didn’t hit Quebec, at least, not here in Montreal; no Harpercon seats, but anyway…).  He seems to wonder if the publicity was poorly done or if many Canadians simply don’t care. No, Mr. Simpson, I’ll go with your last reason, ol’ Stevie spent millions on those loud placards that would hit anyone in the face.  That is, anyone living in Harpercon ridings, in particular.  Apathy, that dangerous attitude that is allowing the Harpercon controlled message to misinform and brainwash; it’s almost hypnotizing.  It’s also largely why ol’ Stevie spiteful is winning.  Economic Action Plan is just one example cited by Simpson.

Of course, we all remember how 30%–roughly Harper’s cheerleaders strongly believe Iggy is to blame for Canada’s loss of that UN Security Council seat.

In the US, many, of course, still believe that Obama was not born in the US and that he is Muslim.

It’s more than likely why Obama squandered his first two years in office. He had a wonderful opportunity to get a bunch of shit done while he had control of both the house and the senate before those mid-terms, but didn’t.  He claimed to have been that way in an effort at by partisanship. I think (as well as many others) it was an attempt to shed the image of the Kenyan born Muslim Marxist the Rush Limbaugh and Fox News Machine paint him out to be.

Plus, how can we forget Sarah Palin’s death panels? I cited that in my  post over the summer as an example of how powerful misinformation can be and is. Those dreaded death panels will be milked for all it’s worth. If Palin becomes the Rethuglican presidential candidate in 2012, count on her to bring up death panels in her campaign among other falsehoods sponsored by Fox News.

Speaking of ‘death panels’,  health care reform in the US, such as it is; a very watered down plan with no public option and looks more like a bail out for the insurance industry, take a look at the panicked misinformation happening there.  There are many, again, thanks largely in part to the Rush Limbaugh and Fox News misinformation machine,  who believe that this new significantly weak health plan will lead to full out government take over of  American health care.

Speaking of health care, here in Canada, much of the corporate media is now touting the usual slogans of “Universal health care is not sustainable!”   Or, my favourite, “Time to have that Adult discussion about health care” (translation, adult discussion means guilt tripping us to into forgetting about health care for ourselves so only the uber rich could lie in Mayo Clinic styled places where the blue smarties are removed from their candy dishese).  In reality, it is. Many have proven that it is. However, these politicians are no doubt being lobbied by the private sector health care providers, quite possibly even with the backing of American health insurance companies.

Then of course, the fact that many still believe Obama is a soshalist because of his stimulus packages. Curious how none seem to tack that soshalist label on to ol’ Dubya, though. Here’s Simpson again.

Mr. Obama’s stimulus package, approved by Congress, contained $288-billion in tax cuts, but 54 per cent of respondents said the package didn’t contain such cuts. Only 28 per cent knew that the bailout for General Motors and Chrysler had occurred under both Mr. Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush.

I will expand on that, saying that we’ve heard many of them screeching that they’re taxes have skyrocketed through the roof under President Obama, when in reality, their tax bills have either remained the same or in some cases, gone down. This is what I find mind boggling. One really doesn’t need much critical thinking or picking up a newspaper or watching a more credible news source than Fox News to figure this out. They don’t look at their pay stubs? They don’t look at their tax returns?  They don’t realize that they basically have the same take-home pay to budget with?  I find that particularly frightening as it points out how easy it is to brainwash these people. Of course, we’re also talking about folks, who largely in part, don’t know the main religion of Israel, don’t know how many sides there are in a triangle or the religion of Buddhist monks.

Back in Canada,  we have an aging population who are growing more and more scared of their own shadows, thanks to  the Harpercon message machine. Despite the fact that the data actually says that crime is on the decline,  you get prominent media buffoons like Tom Flanagan and Lorrie Goldstein who manage quite successfully to keep Canadians scared into believing that we’re very bad people and Canada is a very dangerous place, by playing with the numbers to suit their own ends, basically saying that crime numbers are still higher than they were pre-1960s.  It’s all in the wording.

Man, how crafty the right slanted media can be in their wording.   Why else is it so difficult to get a public enquiry into what happened at the G20 fiasco?  A majority of the public simply isn’t behind it.   Many newspapers used wording that was to say the least, misleading. Headlines like this:

More than 1,000 people were arrested during the protests, which saw vandals smash windows and burn police cars.

This kind of headline is not entirely false. More than 1000 people did get arrested and vandals did smash windows and burn police cars, however, the headline implies that all of those arrestees were responsible for that mayhem, when in reality, those so-called black bloc were not amongst those arrested with that group of 1000; that that group of more than 1000 were actually peaceful protesters and even those who were not participating in the protests but had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as many of us know. Sadly, most don’t. Even more frightening, those who don’t know, don’t want to know; in fact, they’re quite vehement in remaining with their misinformation. I guess that would complicate their lives somehow.

This is why tough on crime legislation would win out.  This is why, much to the chagrin of many progressives, the Liberals won’t really oppose it.  When the Harpercons and their cheerleaders in the media use catch phrases to describe the Liberals and the NDP as “Soft on Crime” and “hug a thug”, how do they oppose such propoganda on an electorate willing to swallow any kool-aid du jour the corporate media and the government serves up without thinking too much? Can they?  A tall order, given that attempting to inform the masses simply has them turn on you far worse.  It’s easy to see why the Liberals first approached Julian Fantino to run for their team in Vaughan; what better way to show the masses of frightened seniors you do care about lawn order than to have a robocop on your team.

Labels like “Taliban Jack” to describe Jack Layton.  To this date, he still hasn’t been able to shake it and to many of the frightened masses, he still looks like a Taliban and terrorist sympathizer.

Stevie spiteful to many is looked upon as the hero of the recession and Jimbo Flaherty, a genious of a finance minister due to the fact that we faired the recession somewhat better than the US and the European Union. However, in reality, that is mostly thanks to the safeguards and regulations Paul Martin had put into place and kept in place despite pressures from the US.  Given what a brown nose Stevie was to Bush, had he a majority back then, he would have surely deregulated as soon as Bush and his motley band of corporate thieves said “jump”.  I remember one day at work, the guy who owns the cafeteria and I tried to explain this to a volunteer, himself a senior, but he refused to listen and kept interrupting. It was as if the volunteer was blocking his ears and singing “Doo Wah Diddy” at the top of his lungs to drown us out.  Another example of one who just doesn’t want to listen to facts and the more we tried to inform, the more he pushed back.  For the record, the cafeteria guy is a loyal NDP supporter.

Scared seniors are convinced that public money is better spent to lock up the world to keep them safe than to pay them a pension to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table or to provide medicare for them to access the health care system any time they need it, because, by George! Canada is crawling with unreported criminals!

Back in the US, Americans are kept paranoid 24/7 by Fox News. McCarthyism of the 1950s is very much in vogue today, only now those communists are no longer Russian but are from the Middle-East and they’re Muslim, but they’re still conditioned to look under their beds and their closets everyday.

Speaking of Fox News, according to Simpson, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, is that the most misinformed people are those who watch Fox News daily. Just imagine when Fox News North comes here; how much further dumbed down we will be.

In addition to misinformation with particular use of buzz words, catch phrases and distortions of the truth as to be misleading, the message changes over time as well. Remember a time when  Steve and the Crappers’ far right ways were deemed as frightening by the corporate media?  They chastised Paul Martin and the Liberals for the sponsorship scandal and his coup, ousting Jean Chretien, but they did paint the Harpercons as scary and rightfully so.  Now that message has changed Everything Harper said and did during the old days of Reform, NCC and Canadian Alliance haven’t changed one bit, only the media’s interpretation of it. Now the far right bigotry, theocracy,  and removal of the social safety net are a good thing.

The misinformation continues.

So, how do progressives or even more moderate parties than the far right win over their electorate, given they swallow all the misinformation and to correct them is just dismissed as “elite” and we all know “elitism” is plain evul.  The more one attempts to provide good information, the more the misinformed retreat into their misinformation.

How do so many allow themselves to be not only misinformed, but to stubbornly remain this way?  Especially in this day and age, as Simpson pointed out in his article yesterday, we’re better educated than our ancestors before us and have more access to information, especially with the internet.