But what are they REALLY selling?
I recently received a piece of spam that I actually read. Sometimes I feel like I really need to know what "the other side" is up in arms about, I *want* to understand if I can. This spam cloaks itself in the "vote in this poll" supposed impartiality that is so common to push-polls and the like. Knowing that they were coming in with a bias and not really interested in what I really thought, I decided to go for it anyway and see what it is that these people were selling. Because yes, of course, they're selling something. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So, there's a poll of sorts. Basically they offer half a dozen questions that give you the opportunity to blame Obama for everything bad in the country (or not) before offering up their screed in the hopes of selling you a book of what amounts to conspiracy theories. Or maybe I'm being unkind, maybe they've done the research that Matt Taibi did in Griftopia and they're just trying to educate people about how they're being taken by the oligarchy that's established itself in our democratic republic.
However, looking at the propaganda that's on offer once you finish their "poll" I can't help be see the extreme bias. These people praise "a few courageous individuals, from Ron Paul to the Tea Party movement" which makes me howl with laughter. Really? That broad range, that bipartisan group of truth-tellers? From RON PAUL to the TEA PARTY? That's where you draw your lines? Oh, for fuck sake.
But it gets better! These folks want to link "the incompetent attempts at social engineering by liberals in Congress-combined with the greed of Wall Street investment banks" to everything bad happening in America today. Even though by their own propaganda they admit that the major regulatory changes (Republican-led deregulation of banking!) that allowed the excesses on Wall Street took place in the REAGAN years, they only talk dates when Republicans held power ("In 1982 [atrocity X] happened...") and the only politicians named in their propaganda are people like Barney Frank, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. While the time period of 2002-2006 was prime time for the crap-fest they're railing against, where those scoundrels Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held sway over less then half of all mortgages for example, Bush I, Bush II, and His Holiness Ronald Reagan are NEVER MENTIONED, let alone anyone from Congress who led the fight for deregulation. It's all about the "liberal social engineering" at the same time as they talk about mortgage refinancing hitting record levels in 2003 (when GW BUSH was President, the same man who encouraged everyone to "go to Disneyland" in response to 9/11... go shopping to keep the economy strong and show what America was about).
The propaganda feed goes on, talking about "During Obama's initial years in office, the number of workers unemployed for a year or more hit record highs," without any context. Obama took over when things had totally TANKED under Bush. He started with a penalty, he started in debt, with people desperately struggling. He *inherited* a LOT of trouble! Look at the trend since he took over...
I've seen a few Republicans who want to put all of Bush's two terms up against Obama "to date" as a way of saying that Bush wasn't so bad, as if somehow you can compare a guy who started out with an economic boom, a budget surplus, and two full terms in office with a guy who inherited a deficit, a couple of wars, a bigass recession, and a total meltdown of the corrupt and broken financial markets and has only made it through part of one term in office. Skew things much, guys? C'mon.
The bottom line is that by taking the "poll" you agree to sign up for their newsletter and other communications. They start to hard-sell you on their book before you ever leave the "poll" site: "We are beholden to no political party... are neither conservative nor liberal... and we call everything the way we see it." They telegraph pretty well their biases before you take their "poll" if you're 'net savvy or hold an opinion left of Attila the Hun, but if you're at all already inclined to think that Obama is taking the country in the most terrible of directions or that big business/big government is out to screw you and screw you *personally* you might take the poll, read the propaganda and think you've stumbled across someone who knows the "truth". They certainly sound confident, with all the names and numbers and timelines and promises of secrets that *no one else will tell you* (especially not that [Liberal] Mainstream Media)...
It's a boondoggle. It's a scam. It's the worst kind of slander and fear-mongering, taking just enough truth and muddying the waters by only ever mentioning hated liberal names in relation to the worst of the privileged, conservative party's deregulatory excesses. It makes me angry, because I know good, decent people who have fallen into this trap or one like it. I see them on my Facebook page, would probably see them at my church (if they hadn't scared me away from church a long time ago) or see them at my family's holiday table (if we ever actually talked about important things like this, if they didn't cringe from my questions about their beliefs and consider me one of "those people" they dare not talk openly to).
The whole thing makes me sad and angry. And no, fuckers, I'm not going to buy your fucking book. I can't do much else in the face of your vile opportunism but I can, at least, do that.
So, there's a poll of sorts. Basically they offer half a dozen questions that give you the opportunity to blame Obama for everything bad in the country (or not) before offering up their screed in the hopes of selling you a book of what amounts to conspiracy theories. Or maybe I'm being unkind, maybe they've done the research that Matt Taibi did in Griftopia and they're just trying to educate people about how they're being taken by the oligarchy that's established itself in our democratic republic.
However, looking at the propaganda that's on offer once you finish their "poll" I can't help be see the extreme bias. These people praise "a few courageous individuals, from Ron Paul to the Tea Party movement" which makes me howl with laughter. Really? That broad range, that bipartisan group of truth-tellers? From RON PAUL to the TEA PARTY? That's where you draw your lines? Oh, for fuck sake.
But it gets better! These folks want to link "the incompetent attempts at social engineering by liberals in Congress-combined with the greed of Wall Street investment banks" to everything bad happening in America today. Even though by their own propaganda they admit that the major regulatory changes (Republican-led deregulation of banking!) that allowed the excesses on Wall Street took place in the REAGAN years, they only talk dates when Republicans held power ("In 1982 [atrocity X] happened...") and the only politicians named in their propaganda are people like Barney Frank, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. While the time period of 2002-2006 was prime time for the crap-fest they're railing against, where those scoundrels Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held sway over less then half of all mortgages for example, Bush I, Bush II, and His Holiness Ronald Reagan are NEVER MENTIONED, let alone anyone from Congress who led the fight for deregulation. It's all about the "liberal social engineering" at the same time as they talk about mortgage refinancing hitting record levels in 2003 (when GW BUSH was President, the same man who encouraged everyone to "go to Disneyland" in response to 9/11... go shopping to keep the economy strong and show what America was about).
The propaganda feed goes on, talking about "During Obama's initial years in office, the number of workers unemployed for a year or more hit record highs," without any context. Obama took over when things had totally TANKED under Bush. He started with a penalty, he started in debt, with people desperately struggling. He *inherited* a LOT of trouble! Look at the trend since he took over...
I've seen a few Republicans who want to put all of Bush's two terms up against Obama "to date" as a way of saying that Bush wasn't so bad, as if somehow you can compare a guy who started out with an economic boom, a budget surplus, and two full terms in office with a guy who inherited a deficit, a couple of wars, a bigass recession, and a total meltdown of the corrupt and broken financial markets and has only made it through part of one term in office. Skew things much, guys? C'mon.
The bottom line is that by taking the "poll" you agree to sign up for their newsletter and other communications. They start to hard-sell you on their book before you ever leave the "poll" site: "We are beholden to no political party... are neither conservative nor liberal... and we call everything the way we see it." They telegraph pretty well their biases before you take their "poll" if you're 'net savvy or hold an opinion left of Attila the Hun, but if you're at all already inclined to think that Obama is taking the country in the most terrible of directions or that big business/big government is out to screw you and screw you *personally* you might take the poll, read the propaganda and think you've stumbled across someone who knows the "truth". They certainly sound confident, with all the names and numbers and timelines and promises of secrets that *no one else will tell you* (especially not that [Liberal] Mainstream Media)...
It's a boondoggle. It's a scam. It's the worst kind of slander and fear-mongering, taking just enough truth and muddying the waters by only ever mentioning hated liberal names in relation to the worst of the privileged, conservative party's deregulatory excesses. It makes me angry, because I know good, decent people who have fallen into this trap or one like it. I see them on my Facebook page, would probably see them at my church (if they hadn't scared me away from church a long time ago) or see them at my family's holiday table (if we ever actually talked about important things like this, if they didn't cringe from my questions about their beliefs and consider me one of "those people" they dare not talk openly to).
The whole thing makes me sad and angry. And no, fuckers, I'm not going to buy your fucking book. I can't do much else in the face of your vile opportunism but I can, at least, do that.