Paul Craig Roberts: Gullible Americans

[reprehensor]

In this latest article by the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, we are asked to come grips with the fact that terror is being used against as a political cudgel;

(links to Information Clearing House.info)

Gullible Americans

By Paul Craig Roberts
08/14/06 "Information Clearing House" -- --

I was in China when a July Harris Poll reported that 50 percent of Americans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when Bush invaded that country, and that 64 percent of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein had strong links with Al Qaeda.

The Chinese leaders and intellectuals with whom I was meeting were incredulous. How could a majority of the population in an allegedly free country with an allegedly free press be so totally misinformed?

The only answer I could give the Chinese is that Americans would have been the perfect population for Mao and the Gang of Four, because Americans believe anything their government tells them.

Americans never check any facts. Who do you know, for example, who has even read the Report of the 9/11 Commission, much less checked the alleged facts reported in that document. I can answer for you. You don’t know anyone who has read the report or checked the facts...

Continued...

[Supersedeas]

1. you could easily substitute the Corporate Media for Americans here

[Bake]

18. The media is not gullible, they're culpable

Willing participants who know better but report the lies that support their corporate masters' agenda.

Bake

[MadHound]

2. Of course we're gullible, look at an average American's time crunch

Get up early in the morning, get the kids ready to get out the door, get yourself ready to get out the door, usually have some jabbering, idiotic drive time radio show on, whose news content is next to nothing. Head to work, perhaps have NPR on the radio(which has become a serious propaganda arm in the past few years). Get to work, work one's ass off for eight to twelve hours, no time to dig out real news, busy, busy. Head home, maybe catch some news on the commute, but since all anybody wants to do after work is relax, you'll probably have music or other entertainment on instead.

Get home, spend time with kids, spouse, hopefully. Get dinner ready, make sure the household chores get done, make sure the kids have done homework and brushed their teeth before they head to bed, and maybe, just maybe catch a half hour of TV news before hitting the sack.

What's missing from this scenario? The time it takes to search out, generally on the internet, enough of the "real news" in order for you to be an informed citizen. Most people have barely enough time to click on the TV and get the pabulum that is passing for news these days. There is no time for most people to cruise the 'net and become informed from other, diverse, non-propagandized sources.

So it is really no wonder that Americans are so damn misinformed. The MSM, which could be once counted on to deliver the straight goods, at least most of the time, has become the propaganda arms of our conservative, corporatist government. And with the cost of living running amok for over thirty years, accompanied by a corresponding in real world wages, most Americans have become increasingly pinched for time, having barely enough time to sleep, shower and get up and do it all again, much less go searching for those media outlets outside the MSM that are truly informative.

In many ways this looks like a deliberate set-up, one that has been played out over the span of decades. Increasingly occupy the public with an increasing amount of work, all to hopefully stay in the same place socio-economic wise. Then gradually buy up all the media outlets and consolidate them so much that now literally a handful of media empires control 95% of this country's media.

Sounds like a great plan to keep the public dumbed down and uniformed.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

4. You've have so eloquently expressed my understanding of the

situation as well. I used to work 10-12 hour days and then drive round trip 2-3 hours. I always made an effort to watch the 11:00pm news and trusted that the information was true and accurate.

I have a new term for the ignorant American masses, information isolationists. I believe this is a very dangerous situation, because we are turning the world against We the People, not just the US governments policies. This arrogance will only result in more animosity from those afar.

[petgoat]

23. I was real hostile to the very idea of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"

because I figured if anything happened, NPR would tell me about it
--and NPR hadn't told me about that.

That was June of 2004, and I was just discovering the internet.
That fall I would find that NPR wasn't telling about the stolen
election and wasn't telling about 9/11 either.

Now every time I hear some cutesy "just for fun" segment on them
it reminds me of their failure to do their job.

[tbyg52]

24. It would be nice if everybody *read* the news...

...and from independent sources, but realistically you are right. We need the fairness doctrine back, desperately. And some kind of encouragement for networks to treat the news as a loss leader and prestige builder, as they used to.

[tblue37]

9. Don't forget the way our entire educational system has been dumbed down,

to exclude real history or anything vaguely resembling critical thought.

[ryanus]

13. I agree with that

The past few years I have started to learn all the things they were supposed to teach in school, mostly regarding history. Although, it's hard to know that had I been taught it if I would have cared back then. But it's scary to think of what the populace will believe just on faith that the people telling it to them are telling the truth, or even understand it themeselves. Blind leading the blind.

[DemReadingDU]

14. But people have time for hobbies!

People play golf, they watch TV (American Idol, Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, etc.), they do sewing, crafts, woodworking, whatever.

If reading was important to people they would read.

[daydreamer]

15. Reading hurts your eyes.

[DemReadingDU]

16. so does sewing

and other detailed needlework

[LSK]

21. keep in mind Europeans work less, 35 hours compared to 40

[MadHound]

22. Excepting it is more like 35 compared to 50-60, or more

The forty hour work week is rapidly disappearing in this country. If you are in a salaried position, you're working minimum of fifty hours a week. If you are working minimum wage/nearly minimum wage, especially with a family, more than likely you're working sixty hours a week in two jobs just to make ends meet.

We're overworked, underpaid, and overstressed. Is it any wonder that this country is quietly going crazy?

[omega minimo]

25. That's called "go along to get along" (see #7 and #11)

All those reasons that most people have in their busy lives..........meanwhile, most folks have ignored the warning signs and gone along with all the changes as civil liberties and the public commons were chipped away at bit by bit by bit............ while most folks didn't wanna be bothered listening to the occasional friend or co-worker or family member or artist or writer that WAS informed and paying attention...... what a DRAG!! "We're too busy to worry about that. You're so NEGATIVE! It CAN'T HAPPEN HERE. They would never do THAT"

Now it's too little too late and everybody's got an excuse for LIHOP.

:patriot:

"In many ways this looks like a deliberate set-up, one that has been played out over the span of decades. Increasingly occupy the public with an increasing amount of work, all to hopefully stay in the same place socio-economic wise. Then gradually buy up all the media outlets and consolidate them so much that now literally a handful of media empires control 95% of this country's media. Sounds like a great plan to keep the public dumbed down and uniformed."

It sounds like you're old enough to have noticed that and figured it out as it was happening. Who did you think was taking care of your freedoms for you?

[MadHound]

28. LOL, yes I am old enough

I'm also old enough to know that the only people who look out for my civil liberties are the people themselves, myself, and the ACLU. Sadly, the first group has, not suprisingly, let me down. Myself, I do what I can everyday, but who's listening to me. And while the ACLU does a great job, they are getting snowed under, and sadly receive criticism from all sides of the political spectrum.

[omega minimo]

29. You got it

and if we all "do what I can everyday" that = "the people."

I have no idea why a thread discussing American gullibility was moved to the I/P forum, maybe the jig is up.

:hi:

[Protagoras]

3. K & R

Great read. Tells it like it is.

[cali]

30. Paul Craig Roberts

is a bigot. He considers Brown v. Board the most infamous decision the SC has ever made. He writes for the hate sites VDare and Lew Rockwell. He has no credibility with me.

http://atheism.about.com/b/a/086196.htm

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. Fuck informationclearingouse.info

Nothing but a site that copy&pastes from other sites (in violation of copyright)

[Greyhound]

6. It's only a copyright violation if they profit and/or fail to give credit

for the info, otherwise they serve as a repository for date that has been published on the net and, as such, is vulnerable to later censorship and just plain disappearing, as so much news does these days.

Why do you appear to hate them so?

[JHB]

7. Not that he's wrong, but...

...as "the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration", he might add a "mea culpa" ast least for his small part it it.

Reagan and his supporters are the architects of the current power structure in Washington, with ideology, anecdotes, and outright lies taking precedence over facts, with any opposing press hammered relentlessly as "unAmerican" or "supporting the enemy".

[bvar22]

11. Reagan was a puppet,

and his supporters were the duped. The people who installed Reagan are the people to worry about. They are still very much in power, and have decided that it time to rotate in the Democrats for a while. They must keep up the appearance of a "two party" system.



The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[Peace Patriot]

8. These stats are a puzzle because all other polls indicate vast disapproval

of Bush and all his policies for the last several years. SOME Americans are disinformed on a couple of points, yet 56% disapproved of Bush's preemptive war on Iraq way back before the invasion (Feb. '03) AFTER Colin Powell's speech; over 70% disapprove of the Iraq war/occupation today; and, according to one poll posted here at DU, 84% (!) oppose any US participation in a widened Mideast war (some say 65%)--the overall, long term NeoCon "Project for a New American Century" (which hardly any Americans know about--but apparently have sussed out, reading between the lines). The disapproval of Bush has been 65%-70% over a long period of time.

How to put these facts together--some believe some of the propaganda, yet vast disapproval? An intelligent--and essentially just and peaceful--people struggling with 24/7 propaganda, with the lack of an effective opposition (the Democrats), and with their own puzzling powerlessness? That's what I'm getting. If you have 70% opposed to the war, and 20% of them still believe in WMDs, that 20% must believe that the WMDs weren't that much of a threat (that the Bushites lied about the level of threat)--or perhaps they misunderstood the question (because Saddam did have WMDs at one time).

I think articles that get off on dissing the American people are "sheeple" are on the wrong track. The issues of peoples' feelings of powerlessness--and the PERCEPTION of members of the progressive MAJORITY that they are in the MINORITY (fostered by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies) also need to be considered. I think these and the above issues (in essence, vast DISTRUST of the Bush junta, in addition to outright opposition) are vitally important to progressive STRATEGY. How to RE-EMPOWER this majority? And, importantly, how did it get disempowered, and even more important, DISENFRANCHISED?

On some vital matters--such as election fraud, and the Bushite corporate takeover of our election system, using TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code in the new, extremely insider hackable electronic voting systems--Americans are reduced virtually to word of mouth communication. The "Iron Curtain" over some topics (with Dem leadership collusion) has been almost total.

It's no wonder some Americans might be disinformed on some things--and actually something of a miracle that they are as well informed and savvy as they are, and, where they lack information, have a native distrust of the Bushites.

[omega minimo]

26. And yet there is no recourse

"How to put these facts together--some believe some of the propaganda, yet vast disapproval? An intelligent--and essentially just and peaceful--people struggling with 24/7 propaganda, with the lack of an effective opposition (the Democrats), and with their own puzzling powerlessness?.......I think articles that get off on dissing the American people are "sheeple" are on the wrong track. The issues of peoples' feelings of powerlessness--and the PERCEPTION of members of the progressive MAJORITY that they are in the MINORITY (fostered by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies) also need to be considered. I think these and the above issues (in essence, vast DISTRUST of the Bush junta, in addition to outright opposition) are vitally important to progressive STRATEGY."

No change. No representation. No accountability. No one. An administration that you refer to as a "junta" is accountable to no one.

People may or may not have been "informed" about the 2000 election hijacking or the 2004 election hijacking-- but what difference did it make? None. 6 years and tons of blood and treasure into this charade and no one can stand up to it.

I know how much hard work you and others did to document the 2004 election debacle; I was not enthusiastic about focusing on "Next Time" because we knew the death and destruction that would occur meanwhile; and we didn't-- still don't-- know if there will actually BE a "Next Time."

The point here is, even with information, if Americans are powerless to do anything and have no representation to correct the situation, I can't share your optimistic view of the level of awareness. It is impotence. It is complacency that got us here and complacency that keeps us stuck in a nightmare.

We are all "good Germans" now.

:toast:




"How to RE-EMPOWER this majority? And, importantly, how did it get disempowered, and even more important, DISENFRANCHISED?"

Well, Madhound touched on this above:

"In many ways this looks like a deliberate set-up, one that has been played out over the span of decades. Increasingly occupy the public with an increasing amount of work, all to hopefully stay in the same place socio-economic wise. Then gradually buy up all the media outlets and consolidate them so much that now literally a handful of media empires control 95% of this country's media. Sounds like a great plan to keep the public dumbed down and uniformed."

[flyarm]

10. incredible article..may i suggest

you send this to every republican you know!! and highlight the last sentence!!
i just send to 30 republicans i know...

i hope they choke on it!

fly

[DemReadingDU]

12. any Ironworkers reading PCR article?

My spouse is an Ironworker, so he has knowledge of the design of large buildings. He says the 2 Trade Center buildings had an unusual design which contributed to the demise of these 2 buildings. It's hard for me to describe, that's why I was hoping there are some Ironworkers who could add some additional thoughts.

Mostly Paul Craig Roberts has some provocative articles, but this one is a bit too conspiratorial for me.

Except for the gullible part - A lot of Americans don't read nowadays to check out anything. But instead get snippets of news from TV, or from other people who listen to Rush Limbaugh.

edit to add this article: Basically the 2 WTC buildings were built like a building within a building (like a tube inside of another tube), a radical design from other buildings...

http://vincentdunn.com/wtc.html

[BeHereNow]

17. Wow, just wow...

Dear Readers,
Be SURE to read the comments!
ESPECIALLY the one by
"pellelindbergh..."
INCREDIBLE analysis.
Just incredible.
BHN

[femrap]

19. Great piece! A must read....

I am beginning to think that people are starting to doubt the lies of this administration....even the really big lies!

There were some interesting comments after Paul's piece as well.

[LSK]

20. i find this post just minutes from receiving a propaganda email

From a co-worker. No sources of course. But we should leave the UN supposedly.

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[reprehensor]

27. FOX News broadcasts Alex Jones' "False Flag" Terror alert.

Seriously.

YouTube video segment, broadcast August 14, 2006.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GCWPbhUB9s

Announcer: "A radio host who says he predicted a "staged attack" on the World Trade Center involving Usama bin Laden as a "fall guy" in 2001 now says last week's red terror alert is just a trial run for a massive staged terror attack initiated by the U.S. government.

Alex Jones says the attack will occur before the end of October and could provide the "neo-fascist bloodsuckers" in the administration with fraudulent justification to invade Iran or Syria before November's midterm elections."

[Lithos]

31. Locking

Mr. Roberts is a paleo-con who has lent his name and his reputation to groups such as VDare and the Von Mises organization. The former group is a major white-eugenics/anti-immigration site while the Von Mises group has publicly defended slavery as a viable and preferred economic system.

His inclusion is an affront to many on racial grounds.

Lithos
DU Moderator.