The trick to knowing who to believe...
... is to look at people's actions, rather than their words.
For example, every so often I get to wondering if the "loyal opposition" is really as disloyal, dishonest, and disreputable as they seem intent on proving themselves. After all, how bad can people be, if they're claiming to oppose imperialism in all forms? People like that can be an important balance to unchecked American power, as long as they actually are devoted to freedom of expression and not merely paying lip service to it so they can impose their own form of suppression of dissent.
It's not hard for me to find blogs written by the "loyal opposition." A quick search through some "friend-of-a-friends'" pages usually turns up some anti-war voices I haven't heard yet. Of course, the entries, even creepy ones like, "Open revolution in response to suppression of discourse [via economic violence, structural violence, or any other attempt to "game the system"], is, in my opinion, moral," are at least phrased in the most reasonable ways possible.
So, to compare the words they use to the actions they take, I'll post a comment or two.
The comment I posted at the above-mentioned blog, in a thread where commenters were comparing WWII-era anti-Japanese propaganda to modern-day propaganda (and finding the latter much more horrific in theoretical content, if not in actual content), was as follows:
Wow. People really think this way about those of us who support the War in Iraq.
I guess even liberals find it way too easy to demonize people you consider yourselves above communicating with.
This was, of course, construed by the owner of the journal as a personal attack on herself and her beliefs, leading to several posts on both her blog and my own excoriating me for "making assumptions" about her, all the while happily making all kinds of assumptions about me.
And the funniest thing was, the owner of the blog deleted my comment, apparently so nobody could look back and see what I actually posted, instead having to take her word for it. Which, of course, is exactly the kind of "information controls" that REAL imperialists constantly struggle to impose, no matter how easily circumvented they actually are.
Congratulations on your suppression of discourse, queenofstripes! Viva la Revolucion!
For example, every so often I get to wondering if the "loyal opposition" is really as disloyal, dishonest, and disreputable as they seem intent on proving themselves. After all, how bad can people be, if they're claiming to oppose imperialism in all forms? People like that can be an important balance to unchecked American power, as long as they actually are devoted to freedom of expression and not merely paying lip service to it so they can impose their own form of suppression of dissent.
It's not hard for me to find blogs written by the "loyal opposition." A quick search through some "friend-of-a-friends'" pages usually turns up some anti-war voices I haven't heard yet. Of course, the entries, even creepy ones like, "Open revolution in response to suppression of discourse [via economic violence, structural violence, or any other attempt to "game the system"], is, in my opinion, moral," are at least phrased in the most reasonable ways possible.
So, to compare the words they use to the actions they take, I'll post a comment or two.
The comment I posted at the above-mentioned blog, in a thread where commenters were comparing WWII-era anti-Japanese propaganda to modern-day propaganda (and finding the latter much more horrific in theoretical content, if not in actual content), was as follows:
Wow. People really think this way about those of us who support the War in Iraq.
I guess even liberals find it way too easy to demonize people you consider yourselves above communicating with.
This was, of course, construed by the owner of the journal as a personal attack on herself and her beliefs, leading to several posts on both her blog and my own excoriating me for "making assumptions" about her, all the while happily making all kinds of assumptions about me.
And the funniest thing was, the owner of the blog deleted my comment, apparently so nobody could look back and see what I actually posted, instead having to take her word for it. Which, of course, is exactly the kind of "information controls" that REAL imperialists constantly struggle to impose, no matter how easily circumvented they actually are.
Congratulations on your suppression of discourse, queenofstripes! Viva la Revolucion!