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Keeping Truth Alive: Preventing Voluntary Ignorance and Brainwashed Minds By Rob Kall It's funny. I listen, on a regular basis, to right wing talk radio. I may have to wash my ears after I'm done, but I really want to know what the other side is saying. But a recent poll shows that the right wingers don't want to hear from the left. Only around two percent of the people in a recent poll who were Bush supporters had gone to see Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. My own personal experience confirms this. I have been participating in a local, grassroots, walk/run against Bush. About 40-50 of us, wearing Run Against Bush tee shirts, fan out through the local County Seat, Doylestown, PA, and we offer literature to whoever expresses interest, either positive or negative. The Bush supporters just about NEVER accept the literature we offer. They already know. They already made up their minds. Occasionally, I'll get a conversation started with some right wingers. I've learned to screen them though. Some are so brainwashed by the right wing propaganda barrage (read that as Fox News and the right wing talk-radio echo chamber) that there is no real discussion possible. So I ask, "How many hours of the "Big Talker" do you listen to every day?" The Big Talker is the local station that carries 15 consecutive hours of right wing talk radio-- a sandwich of three hours of local guy Michael Smerconish (occasionally seen as a pundit on CNN) from 6-9 AM, then nine hours of toxic Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, followed by another local guy Dom Giordano. The local guys are not as toxic as the nationally syndicated radio gestapo, but they do a a decent job servicing the RNC's daily talking points, and perhaps, because they weave in local issues and news, they are even more seductive. Anyway, the more hours I find the person I'm speaking with listens to "The Big Talker" and Fox News, the more homogenous and predictable their words are and the less likely I am able to actually hold a conversation. It's like talking to a parrot. These are the people who still believe that Iraq and Saddam were involved ni the 9/11 attack. But, like I said, they can recite Hannity and Limbaugh like a fundamentalist cites bible verse. Most of the people I meet in my walks are white men. I think a part of supporting Bush is a sense of team spirit, that there's a macho component that helps these guys feel more masculine, more potent, when they root for Bush, root for the Iraq war. Recently, I chatted with four Bush supporters ranging in age from 19-21. The more vocal and adamant the support, the more hours of toxic talk radio listened to. I must have spent 45 minutes with these "bush quartet," and the reason was, I got the feeling that the less vocal members, who didn't listen to toxic talk radio for six or more hours a day, or should I say, were exposed to less than six hours of brainwashing, were at least able to listen to me present the other side. I even got the feeling, that sitting there with there fully brainwashed and joyfully and willfully ignorant friend, they couldn't and wouldn't voice opposition to Bush, or even question Bush's viability as president in front of their friend. I think there are a lot of closet anti-Bush people out there. They are at risk. The mainstream media are getting worse, more overtly selling out to the right wing, failing more and more often to ask tough questions of Bush's side That makes it essential for we on the left to make these closet anti-bush people, independents and people who are not media savvy aware of the alternative media that exist on-line and in on the radio in some limited metropolitan areas. Put together a simple printout that lists links to some of the strongest sites that represent the left wing perspective. These include:
Reader suggestions: Mr.
Kall – I belong to a number of political
groups, and have found the following sites (as well as the ones you
mentioned) to be very informative: http://www.alternet.org/
http://www.crisispapers.org/
http://www.hardattacknews.com/
http://www.progressive.org/
http://www.liberalpatriot.org/
http://www.rightiswrong.com/
http://onetermpresident.com/
http://www.americanpolitics.com/
http://www.thomasmc.com/
http://antiwar.com/
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/ I hope you find these helpful as well. Becki Lawrie
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