This is a nice essay that describes a lot of the reasons I started RNS. Currently, the left is crying about the "stifling of dissent" they feel they suffer when Americans react angrily (or incredulously) to some of the "blame America First" rhetoric that they were so eager to spread around after 9/11. All I can say is - welcome to the way most of us expressing conservative opinions have felt for a long time. My blog started out purely as a venue for me to voice my beliefs and concerns in the face of what I felt was an overwhelming bias by "the mainstream media" against the things I held dear. And judging from the number of "right of center" blogs out there, I suspect I'm not the only one. The other thing I have learned is that the "mainstream media" is really not so mainstream - and the fact that we are beginning to realize that causes them a great deal of angst. It seems to irritate some in big media that we have the audacity to think for ourselves, analyze and critique for ourselves, and, most of all, SPEAK for ourselves. Especially since our voice is frequently diametrically opposed to what the "professionals" deem the correct point of view.
Use inflammatory speech; don't be surprised if people's emotions get inflamed. If you publicly sympathize with a group that murdered 3,000 people because they had the audacity to be taxpayers in the good old USA, then don't be surprised if the rest of us taxpayers tell you politely (or not) but firmly to get stuffed. What the left is really crying about is the fact that their views aren't popular, and aren't supported by the majority of "average" Americans.
Yes, we have all heard the "stupid" American jokes that are so popular amongst the intelligentsia and the "elite' of Europe. And the mocking cries of "cowboy" and "bully" and "arrogant" when we needed support, not hollow criticism. We've watched while a former ally made anti-Americanism a cornerstone of his re-election campaign, a campaign that was successful. But "stupid" or not, this is our country and our culture and our people that were murdered, and it has never been our way to run and hide from danger. It infuriates me to no end that some people want to turn us into a politically correct nation of followers and cowards. Watching elected officials like McDermott and Bonior and Thompson stand in Iraq and criticize our government and provide propaganda to Saddam Hussein, while trying to convince us that they are providing service to the American People, is an ugly sight. Quite simply, they are aiding and abetting the enemy, and I for one will never forget that. McDermott and Thompson are supposed to be "untouchable" in their districts. I suppose we shall see if that is the case. Certainly politicians count on voters having short lived memories, but this kind of asinine stupidity calls for a concerted effort to be sure the voters DON'T forget where this trio chose to throw their allegiance and support. And, if by some miracle they do lose their bid for re-election, I'm sure those on the left will cry once again about the stifling of dissent. I, however, will applaud it as a job well done by people that feel as I do: that you ridicule and deride and attack us at your own peril. Failure to follow this basic prescription by the previous administration set the foundation for the attacks of September 11th, by giving the impression that we were weak and impotent and unable to act in a decisive manner. This is a mistake we should never make again.
Some simply have a working definition of 'censorship' as "My point not getting across" or "People destroying my arguments through logic and fact". Quite sad, really, to be so dumb.
On that same note, what about the word 'imperialism'? Almost all the people who claim to be censored or that "dissent is being crushed", etc., will also say that America is imperialist. Their definition of 'imperialist' must be "To be stronger than every other nation on earth". I think that's all it takes because they haven't shown evidence of our vast colonies...oh well.
Posted by: addison on October 5, 2002 04:59 PMExellent post, it might surprise you but here in Australia we have an identical bunch of loons and appeasers running the media.
Check out some of the Australian Blogs (like Professor Bunyip)to get an idea of what rational people have to contend with.
Cheers, Ron.
Great job! And addison (fancy meeting you here!), you're right about the left's definitions of "censorship" and "imperialism." I'd also add "McCarthyism" (like censorship, another term for "How dare you criticize us?") and racism (used whenever leftists can't refute what you're saying, which is to say, all the friggin' time.)
Posted by: Donna on October 5, 2002 08:24 PMHi again. There is not one side to the story of Sept. 11th. What you need to consider, that you might not have yet, is the fact that the government is withholding information from the Sept. 11th Commission, which is a bipartisan (congressional, I think) commission to compile a report on the attacks. It doesn't make sense that the White House is denying information.
I don't believe that what occurred on that day was right. I don't think anyone does, except the islamic extremists who hatched and carried out the plan. Every time I see our flag I pause and stare up at it, as if maybe the way it moves will tell me what it really means.
The fact is that being a bully in the international arena is partly what motivated those attacks. You can't just go bomb the shit out of some country and leave it to rot. It's careless and a shoddy way to attempt to resolve the issue. You can fill in the rest.
And I've never heard a leftist make the taxpayer argument...I'm not sure where you're pulling that from. Quite simply, there was prior knowledge of a possible attack and with our government's resources, it should not have been hard to monitor the hijackers. After all, they were linked to each other by telephone numbers and addresses. They were a connected chain that should have been discovered; again this is an issue of mismanagement. Government had better things to do than to worry about an attack. And people died.
And as far as people on the left having nothing to say, I think you're wrong. Most people I know are very knowledgable, and are liberal. They take the time to do the research. I've actually downloaded the first release of the Sept. 11th report. Have you? Do you really know who it is you support? Do you have a background in global history or international politics? A lot of liberals do, which is how we've constructed our worldview.
I haven't seen any good arguments on this site yet. I've seen a lot of namecalling and no sources.
Posted by: Anne on December 2, 2003 02:02 AMI forgot something...to remark on "free speech"; I don't know if you're familiar with Pittsburgh, PA, but it's where I'm from. A couple weeks ago, Bush paid us a visit on Three Mile Island. Protesters were fenced in a baseball diamond half a mile away from the TV broadcast of his visit. How's that for a liberal media? But, it gets better. One individual decided to leave the diamond...he walked in the direction of the event and was arrested. Why, you ask? Because he stepped outside the "free speech zone." So now the pariah of freedom is witholding people's consitutional right to free speech. I'll be downtown tomorrow to let your President know what I think of his "free speech zone."
Posted by: Anne on December 2, 2003 02:06 AMMy name is Dusten, I am 17 years old and I live in New Hampshire. I must agree with Anne... You provide minimal evidence for your arguments and accuse the left of having the wrong views.
You surely base this idea on what American media has told you, but American media is consolidated and corporately owned, often funded by the government. They are told what they can and cannot show and all news stations operate according to these same rules... They have painted a tainted picture of the current "War on Terrorism" and the events in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Secondly, the imperialist practice of America is no fairy tale, and nothing to push aside as a conspiracy theory, as you so irresponsibly have. I recommend that you visit a nice little site organized by the Bush Administration called "The Project for the New American Century" (www.newamericancentury.org). This site contains reports published by the Bush Administration, prior to September 11th, detailing Bush's notions that America must station more troops in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The reports also explain that the Bush Administration planned to enter Iraq whether they posed a threat or not.
America has been removing Democratically-elected leaders in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Southern America since the 30's, appointing new leaders to rule over US-backed Dictatorships to secure foreign markets. America has funded and overseen the Taliban's military rule of Afghanistan for years, both to provide a puppet government in Afghanistan where citizens have no voice, and to regulate drug growing in the Middle East. This is not the only case of such US support being offered to lawless, fascist, brutal military gangs. The US has armed and supported the military rule in El Salvador also, which killed 70,000 Salvadorans.
To touch back on the topic of US mainstream media neglecting certain issues, the US has been caught up in an imperialism game in the Philippines since the early 1900's. US troops have slaughtered native tribes who resisted US influence and rules. To this day, America has thousands of troops stationed in the Philippines, murdering countless Pilipino "rebels".
America has set up thousands of troops and US bases in small, third world countries all over the world to oversee US-backed Dictators and ensure that they can successfully enslave their country according to US wishes. THAT is an undeniable Imperialism.
I suggest that some of you stop swallowing American media and begin to search for some unbiased European media. There are many European reporters who aren't afraid to challenge the unjust actions of the US.
American media will rot your mind. It always has been full of propaganda.
The American press projected the sinking of the battleship Maine in 1898 to engage in the Spanish American War. Later in 1915, the government ignored deliberate threats by Germany and allowed the sinking of the Lusitania to get the US involved in World War I. The US government has specific knowledge of Pearl Harbor before it happened, but they chose to neglect the threats to enter World War II. In 1964, the government fabricated a story about a North Vietnamese boat launching torpedoes to sink an American warship to enter the Vietnam War. This event is now KNOWN to be a deliberate lie to the American people to engage in war we knew we could not win which killed 58,000 Americans.
Now, you've got the Bush administration ignoring specific threats, holding only 2 meetings on the threat of terrorism during his term before September 11th, and making specific claims that Iraq is holding chemical weapons, going so far as to name sites of weapon manufacture and vehicles used to move the incriminating materials. So where is all this evidence now?
And now you've got the Patriot Act regulating your freedom of speech.
America has been twisted and to deny that, you are not being patriotic... You are turning around and looking the other way while the US continues to force its troops and its free trade on countries all over the world. You are indirectly supporting the imperialist agenda of the higher powers of the American government and allowing the degradation of real American values in government.
The government, specifically the FBI, still withholds thousands of documents concerning the incidents of September 11th, the Oklahoma City Bombing and the imprisoning and/or murder of many Black Panther and Native American activists in the past 50 years.
America has many unjust aspects that you choose not to see, perhaps because you are afraid that people will think you are a conspiracy-theory loony. You should try reading some unbiased literature on the history and politics of America.