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In my book I note how visionary, and scary, George Orwell's book 1984 has proved to be. Especially in the area of language misuse.
I came across a good example of the on-going war on Trump being perpetrated by the press. It illustrates how the mainstream news press has crossed over to becoming an agent for an agenda. They no longer understand the limited role that the news media should play in collecting and distributing news events for the public. Chuck Todd (the anchor for the NBC Sunday morning NEWS program) interviewing Kellyanne Conway says he totally agrees with her description of what the news media's role is, then pivots and complains that he doesn't understand her 'motive' for challenging his use of pejorative language. TODD: Why was it necessary to send out the press secretary on his first day in office to utter a provable falsehood that now calls into question everything the press secretary will say from here on out? KELLYANNE CONWAY: No it doesn’t. TODD: It will for many Americans. (That is a conclusion that does not qualify as news. It is an assumption based on his personal perspective) CONWAY: No it doesn’t. You want them to hear that….You want them to hear that they can’t trust our press secretary. I think that is-- TODD: What was the motive then? CONWAY: -- a very dangerous statement to make. (She finishes her statement after he interrupts.) TODD: What was the motive for the ridiculous litigation of crowd size? CONWAY: And now you’re casting it-- (She points out how pejorative his language is.) TODD [Interrupting Conway again]: What was the motive? (He is switching the subject to the WH motives, avoiding her challenge about his biased language.) CONWAY: Your job is not to give your opinion Chuck. TODD [Over Conway again]: What was the motive? CONWAY: Respectfully your job is not to call things 'ridiculous' that are said by our press secretary and our president. That’s not your job. You're supposed to be a news person, you’re not an opinion columnist. BINGO! On Friday night's NBC Dateline program, I heard Lester Holt summarize Trumps miraculous ascension to the White House. He said one of his most effect tools was "weaponizing Twitter." I find it hard to believe that experienced 'journalists' like Holt would allow that kind of strongly pejorative language to describe someone using social media to distribute their thoughts. But I can understand it if I were using my news authority to influence the electorate and along comes a threat to my domain, who finds a 'weapon' to circumvent my hold on public access to information. It is appalling that the media that we all must rely on to inform us has made the calculated decision to impose their own values on the information through deceptive use of language. Manipulating language is something we were warned about by George Orwell in back in 1949. As we enter the Trump Era, one of the contentious issues will continue to be the bias, perceived or real, of the media. I happen to believe that there is substantial, tangible evidence that it exists. And the debate will go on…
But something else bothers me even more, and that is the Orwellian tendency of advocates to redefine our language to fit their agenda. For example, I have always considered myself to be right of center politically. I grew up in a Republican family, my folks supported Nixon, but were somewhat skeptical of Goldwater. I was a raging lefty in college, embracing the "All you need is love" dogma of the 1968 Summer of Love. I resisted conscription because of the Vietnam War. But my experiences in the later years of college, in the workplace, and as I became a father and a parent have pulled further to the right. But I am by no measure an extremist. But according to 'mainstream' Democrats I am. In fact, in their world, I am a threat to democracy. The point is, who determines what 'mainstream' really is? Since the dominant media can be heard above all else simply because they have more forums, and since the Democrats have been in control for the past eight years, they have conveniently redefined where the middle is. In relation to the middle of the late eighties, after eight years of Reagan, it is much, much, much further to the left. In fact, by simply looking at Bernie Sanders positions during the election campaign, the middle could be defined as what used to be called the radical left. Let's look at some specifics: Lefties are calling Donald Trump 'Hitler.' Hitler was responsible for the murder of nearly six million jews and hundreds of thousands of his own Nazi soldiers. Donald Trump has not been responsible for the death of ANYONE! They defend their anxieties by yelling at their opponents about their perceived homophobia, xenophobia, or racism. These terms are easy to throw around, and carry heavy emotional impact, but are so generic, they are impossible to disprove. When someone says "You are a hater!" how do you prove a negative? Leftists dispute data by suggesting it can be corrupted, then turn around and say global warming is a proven fact and that a consensus of scientists agree. So it is acceptable only when it supports their theories or agenda. Every issue that is important to the left revolves around their pursuit of unfettered freedom from judgement, from responsibility, from unfairness, from hard work, from homelessness, poverty, disease, and from war. All of which are bad things but are more often than not the result of bad decisions and lack of ambition. They are like children who refuse to grow up, demanding mommy and daddy continue to provide for their needs without complaining. When mommy and daddy object, they scream about the unfairness and judgmentalism, throw tantrums and destroy things unless they get their way. The media is simply a reflection of this generational decision to declare egalitarianism the new religion. It isn't mommy and daddy running the news departments, those people are now in retirement. It is the students of a democratic society of the sixties and seventies that taught the current crop of journalism school graduates populating CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and the Washington Post and the New York Times. And it is the result of years of practicing the eternal youth mentality of the sixties. The hippie generation just refuses to grow up and act their age. They are in arrested development, using the same life management schemes so systemic to the Summer of Love, the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots, the refusal to participate in the process, to vote, to serve in the armed services, to be patriotic, to put in long days of work, when it has been so easy to keep themselves entertained with recreational drugs, with digital media, sports and movies, and to party every day of the week. Today America has answered a wake up call; it is time to get back to a work ethic, to grow up and take responsibility, to get involved in the community and the nation. It is time to move the center back to the true center, to serve the needs of the greater public, to properly reflect the attitudes of the average, God fearing, hard working people in 'fly over country.' When President Trump said 'This is your moment!" He was reassuring us that despite the rancor coming from disillusioned anarchists, from leftist witch doctors and the mainstream, 'college indoctrinated' press, he has heard us. We have a rendezvous with destiny, and Mr. Trump has stepped up to assume the leadership role that has been missing in action. He did what he could do, now it is the responsibility of the citizenry to channel that energy into specific policies and procedures to fulfill the ideals of this movement to restore American Exceptionalism.  "So ain’t nobody going to perform for Donald Trump, huh?” Sambo Dogg asks in a video posted online. “Which one of you jigaboo-ass n*ggas gonna be the first one to do it? Wait, I’m going to roast the f*ck out of one of you Uncle Tom-assed n*ggas for doing it.” Just some friendly advice..... Meantime, Sambo Dogg is fixing pancakes for ya all! I gleaned this from a piece by Dennis Prager.
It explains everything you ever wanted to know about core politics in America (and the World) and why we seem to have irreconcilable differences between those on the left and those on the right: Source of Human Rights Left: government Right: the Creator Human Nature Left: basically good (Therefore, society is primarily responsible for evil.) Right: not basically good (Therefore, the individual is primarily responsible for evil.) Economic Goal Left: equality Right: prosperity Primary Role of the State Left: increase and protect equality Right: increase and protect liberty Government Left: as large as possible Right: as small as possible Family Ideal Left: any loving unit of people Right: a married father and mother, and children Guiding Trinity Left: race, gender and class Right: liberty, In God We Trust and e pluribus unum Good and Evil Left: relative to individual and/or society Right: based on universal absolutes Humanity's Primary Division(s) Left: rich and poor; strong and weak Right: good and evil Ideal Primary Identity of an American Left: world citizen Right: American citizen How to Make a Good Society Left: abolish inequality Right: develop each citizen's moral character View of America Left: profoundly morally flawed; inferior to any number of European countries Right: greatest force for good among nations in world history Gender Left: a social construct Right: male and female Most Important Trait to Cultivate in a Child Left: self-esteem Right: self-control Worth of the Human Fetus Left: determined by the mother Right: determined by society rooted in Judeo-Christian values Primary Source of Crime Left: poverty, racism and other societal flaws Right: the criminal's malfunctioning conscience Place of God and Religion in America Left: secular government and secular society Right: secular government and religious society American Exceptionalism Left: chauvinistic doctrine Right: historical reality Greatest Threat to the World Left: environmental catastrophe (currently global warming) Right: evil (currently radical Islamist violence) International Ideal Left: world governed by the United Nations, and no single country is dominant Right: world in which America is the single strongest entity Primary Reason for Lack of Peace in Middle East Left: Israeli settlements in the West Bank Right: Palestinian, Arab and Muslim denial of Jewish state's right to exist Purpose of Art Left: challenge status quo and bourgeois sensibilities Right: produce works of beauty and profundity to elevate the individual and society Guns Left: ideally universally abolished, except for use by police, the armed forces and registered sportsmen Right: ideally widely owned by responsible individuals for self-protection and the protection of others Race Left: intrinsically significant Right: intrinsically insignificant Racial, Ethnic and Gender Diversity at Universities Left: most important Right: far less important than ideological diversity Black America's Primary Problem Left: racism Right: lack of fathers Greatest Playwright Left: entirely subjective; there is no greatest playwright Right: Shakespeare War Left: not the answer Right: sometimes the only answer Hate Left: wrong, except when directed at the political Right: wrong, except when directed at evil Cultures Left: all equal Right: some are better than others America's Founding Fathers Left: rich white male slave owners Right: great men who founded the greatest society Purpose of Judges Left: pursue social justice Right: pursue justice National Borders Left: a relic of the past Right: indispensable for national survival View of Illegal Immigrants Left: welcomed guests Right: illegal immigrants Nature Left: intrinsically valuable Right: made for man One last personal observation: only conservatives will have read this far because people on the left never confront reality or spend time trying to understand or empathize with those who disagree with them. Julian Assange, like him or hate him, is at least reliable. You may dislike his propensity to expose our secret service and clandestine agents and schemes, which is bad for the U.S., but whatever he has done has never-the-less been accurate.
He is making the case that American's must awaken to the destructive actions that lame duck administrations take upon leaving the office of the Presidency. He is worried that the Obama team will destroy tons of documents before anyone can see them. That in doing so, his administration is effectively whitewashing history. The voters do not know what they do not know, and if history shows us anything, it is that virtually all administrations have done their best to keep it that way. “Our philosophy is that such information is a part of history. It belongs, legally and philosophically, to the American people and more broadly, insofar as the United States interacts with the world, it belongs to the people of the world. It is part of human history and the destruction of major archives of human history, frankly, should be formally listed as a crime against humanity because those archives belong to humanity,” noted Assange. As we as a nation embark on the Trump-lead effort to 'drain the swamp' of self interested bureacrats and insistutions of corruption and waste, we must take measures to assure that the history of what went on in the White House during any administration, is recorded accurately. This was what was at the heart of the Watergate Scandal that forced Richard Nixon to resign the office. If we aren't careful, all of the lessons learned from that painful period in American politics will have been lost. It is apparent that over the past eight years, President Obama has taken lots of liberties with what he considered his mandate. He has often stretched or even overstepped the boundries of his executive powers. The questions that have been raised by the loyal opposition could remain unanswered if his transition team is successful in purging the history of his reign. In order to get where you want to go, you have know where you came from. Understanding what went down during the past eight years should be helpful in reducing the propensity of politicians to make the same mistakes over and over again. There is so much at stake, we can't afford to venture into new waters until we have fixed the leaks in our nation's ship of state. |
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