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Search For Truth Amid the Propaganda

Melanie Sturm | @ThinkAgainUSA Read Comments - 13
Publish Date: 
Thu, 07/30/2015

 

At a recent 11,000-strong Netroots Nation conference, irate activists booed off the stage presidential candidate Martin O’Malley for proclaiming “black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter.”

 

That O’Malley was jeered for his echo of “all men are created equal” – the self-evident truth that fueled America’s civil rights movement – reflects a disturbing phenomenon, one social critic Aldous Huxley called the propagandist’s purpose: “to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”

 

By emphasizing differences and distorting reality, propagandists incite mistrust and hostility, compelling followers to line up dutifully behind partisan agendas, never to Think Again.

 

Yet as Adolf Hitler understood – and history proves – blind partisanship is dangerous.  “What good fortune for governments that the people do not think,” observed modern history’s greatest propagandist and destroyer of humanity.

 

A 2013 experiment conducted by pollster Mark Mellman for the Bipartisan Policy Center confirmed Hitler’s insight, revealing how partisanship often overrides informed policy preferences, blinding people to the consequences of their choices.

 

Two groups of respondents were asked to select between Republican and Democrat education plans, with the labels on each plan reversed in each group. Rather than choose a plan based on policy preferences, Republicans and Democrats in each group overwhelmingly opted for their party’s plan.

 

“The evidence suggests that parties have considerable latitude to alter their positions without losing voters,” Melman concluded, “driving voters further apart on the issues if they choose.”

 

Consider how the Obama Administration is severing the long-standing bipartisan consensus to use all elements of American foreign policy -- diplomatic, economic, and military -- to prevent Iran’s theocratic regime, and the world’s most lethal terrorist state, from acquiring nuclear weapons. 

 

On the most consequential life and death issue facing Americans, administration officials have reversed their pledges to prevent an Iranian bomb while ridiculing those who won’t renege, branding them the equivalent of warmongers.

 

Meanwhile, the Iran deal would convey a jackpot of sanctions-relief, conventional arms and intercontinental ballistic missiles, enabling the world’s worst warmongers – the tyrannical ayatollahs whose declared goal is to establish a global caliphate and “raise the banner of Islam over the White House.”  

 

Unfortunately, by prematurely sidelining diplomatic and economic leverage, the deal leaves America with few peaceful ways to counter Iran, or secure our hostages’ release.

 

Normally, far-reaching international agreements – particularly nuclear-related treaties – require a two-thirds Senate majority to assure domestic support. Fearful of constitutionally mandated scrutiny, the administration framed the deal as an executive agreement requiring no congressional approval. To reassert its treaty authority, Congress agreed that disapproval requires an unprecedented two-thirds majority in both houses.

 

Most worrisome, the administration has circumvented voters, the Constitution and American sovereignty by obtaining UN approval of the Iran accord – including secret side deals – before Congress’s review. Should Congress reject the deal, administration officials argue America would be violating international law.

 

Whose lives will matter most: Those of pressured lawmakers, or Americans whose lives, and way of life, are imperiled by the agreement?

 

The same question can be asked of policymakers who put the lives of criminal aliens ahead of law-abiding innocents by allowing immigration laws to go unenforced.

 

This month, an illegal immigrant with seven convictions, five deportations and multiple returns to San Francisco’s “sanctuary city,” shot and killed 32-year old Kate Steinle while she was strolling with her Dad.

 

Like San Francisco, more than 300 sanctuary jurisdictions routinely ignore immigration laws, as tens of thousands of criminal aliens have been released into unsuspecting populaces. Between 2010 and 2014, 121 released illegals proceeded to commit murder – that’s two preventable tragedies per month. Yet propagandists obscuring these facts call opponents of sanctuary policies racist.

 

Similarly, it’s a “war on women” to be critical of Planned Parenthood, even after secretly recorded videos exposed the human cost – and price – of saleable baby parts, harvested from late-term abortions at their clinics.

 

In two videos that went viral, Planned Parenthood officials explain why their “less crunchy” techniques make them “very good at getting heart, lung, liver.”  They crush above and below to “get it all intact.” A third video shows doctors discussing how to maximize fetal tissue revenue.

 

It’s hard to reconcile a belief that “all lives matter” with the routine and lawful crushing of emerging human life. Yet a mother’s life and right to control her body also matter. Acknowledging these conflicting truisms is a mark of a healthy society, one capable of breaking through the propaganda to consider the question: at what point does the mother’s right to control her life stop trumping a baby’s right to life?

 

George Orwell said, “the further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it,” which is why O’Malley was booed for saying “all lives matter.” Reversing society’s drift requires citizens willing to risk vilification to search for the truth, people who’ll resist reality-distorting partisans.

 

Think Again – by reversing Hitler’s insight, imagine the good fortune for society when the people do think.

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Yes I think thinking itself

Yes I think thinking itself is obsolete.

There is such a strong liberal bias in the media and among so many people. There is no thinking required of a liberal mindset.

Think about some issues.

To liberals, if you oppose global warming you oppose science itself.

If you oppose homosexual marriage you are a bigot.

If you oppose abortion on demand or oppose public funding of any and all birth control devices you hate women.

If you oppose affirmative action you are racist.

If you oppose illegal immigration you are bigoted and xenophobic.

In each of these examples there is no thinking on the part of the liberals. There is no nuance or qualifications. In short you don’t have to think to have the knee jerk liberal opinion on these subjects.

Melanie, you have as usual

Melanie, you have as usual identified significant issues and call the reader to think again. I'm guessing most of them think but....ideology is firmly anchored in the mind.

To change, ideology and blind partisanship usually require more than thinking again. Tragedy, bankruptcy, discomfort or inspiration can lead to rethinking and altering faulty conclusions. One hopes that response to inspiration is chosen agent but.... who/what is inspiring?

As we admire beautiful works of art we are inspired by the artist's expression. The Artist/Creator holds the keys to proper thinking. An honest reading of His message, the Bible, without preconcieved predjudice or outside influence will inspire and effect thinking again. It is helpful to know where we came from, who we are, what our purpose is along with knowing Him with whom we have to do.

Good article, Melanie. It's

Good article, Melanie. It's not easy in these times asking people to take a step back and rethink their assumptions. I see many liberals sputter with anger, and can't formulate a response other than "Fox News Bad". It's so sad, though not surprising.

Keep thinking, keep talking, you'll get through to a few, and have a side benefit of providing fodder for the perpetually offended.

So what to do? give up? wait

So what to do? give up? wait for a solution? Big mistakes are difficult to correct and Iran is a good example.

Nevertheless there are possibilities. Iran was close to revolution. That's one angle to work, as is support to "former" allies. The strength the US does not project is another issue. The specific terms can still be modified to minimize harm.

China and Russia will not suddenly fall in line but most likely would compromise. The issue, of course, is the willingness of those in power to do any of these things.

Mass call campaigns that tie up the lines in Washington are worthwhile in this case.

When folks say, "there is no

When folks say, "there is no alternative" they mean "there is no alternative that won't threaten regime change," which is exactly what is needed. We are in this predicament because we removed any credible threat of force or regime change. We should change that policy and do the following:

1. Institute even tougher sanctions, including the sanction "any company that does business with Iran cannot do business in the U.S." Sure, China and Russia and France can try to help the Iranians but they couldn't deal with this kind of sanction.

2. Militarily enforce an embargo against shipments into and out of Iran, including requiring all planes bound for Iran first to land in an Arab country for inspection before proceeding to Iran; embargo all shipping into and out of Iran.

3. If Iran attempts to resist any of this, first take out its air defenses. If it further resists, destroy its navy.

The objective is regime change. Let's be honest, that is a sine qua non for the world to have any confidence Iran won't build nuclear weapons and ICBMs and use them

Kind of tired hearing this

Kind of tired hearing this type of rhetoric with no alternative solution. So honestly beside invading and bombing Iran, what do you suggest?? Do you really think if our nation falls out of a multi-national agreement that other superpowers, China and Russia, will just fall in line????

Solutions are in this agreement. Iran destroys 2/3's of their centrifuges. They destroy uranium that is of weapon's grade. The agree to inspections and IAEA oversight. Don't work with them, can this deal, they STILL HAVE THE CAPABILITY!!!!! Unless you war hawks want to beat their chest and bomb the crap out of another country. Think about that when you talk about who are the terrorists.

I believe we have entered an

I believe we have entered an alternate reality where truth is irrelevant to most people. Very sad.

The entire Black Lives Matter

The entire Black Lives Matter theme is designed to give the impression that black lives were disregarded by society and thus deserve to be included too. The reality of this group is that they are promoting Black Supremacy over other races with their shouting down responses like All Lives Matter and so I will not support or listen to it.

Leftist thought can be summed

Leftist thought can be summed up in one sentence:

"The issue is never the issue. The issue is the revolution".

This is why Trump resonates.

This is why Trump resonates. He is void of propaganda, has no surrogates, and really no party, just like the first 6 American presidents.

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