The old House Committee on Un-American Activities has re-emerged today in the form of Neoconservatism and most of its drone-like promoters and followers. It has attached itself to large portions of the infotainment industry, infected the collective American mind, and determined the limits of both the debate and the public's conscience.
With a boiling hatred for liberty, freedom, tolerance, and disdain for anything that remotely smacks of the truth, BushCo's News arms (Fox, et al.), display a consistently raving paranoia. Thanks to their constant TV rants, their equally vitriolic talk-radio counterparts, and books by faux intellectuals like Ann Coulter, much of the public has brainlessly glommed on to, tacitly approves of, or actively participates in this trendy new McCarthy-ism.
The latest example of the vacuousness of the neocon mind-set is the laundry list of ridiculous reasons they give for punishing voices of dissent. The Dixie Chicks, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Michael Moore and a host of TV and print journalists have been the targets of well-orchestrated campaigns to discredit and shame them into retracting statements critical of BushCo's illegal actions. Accusations include: their lack of patriotism, they don't support the troops, are aiding the enemy, are Un-American, and far worse, are broadcast nightly to the sneers, scorn, and giggles of Fox pinheads.
On CNN's "Crossfire", the bilious and bombastic former Congressman Bob Dornan said if the Dixie Chicks weren't prepared to suffer the consequences for speaking, they should have been quiet. Though neocons will be the first to deny it, there's an obvious difference between an individual deciding to tear up his concert tickets or destroy a CD and Clear Channel's concerted efforts to derail the Chicks' careers. By bringing their vast corporate might to bear, Clear Channel has dramatically affected the public's attitude towards these singing radicals. At ordinary workplaces around the country, neocon sympathizers coerce or intimidate their employees and colleagues to be silent and punish them when they're not.
Anyone who cares to can see that it's perfectly consistent to support the troops while despising the policies and criticizing the people putting them at risk of being killed. But neocons are not known for their reasoning ability. They are notoriously unwilling or incapable of making anything more than the simplest and most superficial distinctions.
Black/white; Good/evil; With us/against us; Support us/support terrorism
See how easy it is? None of those troublesome 'grey' areas. None of that pesky critical thinking or distinction-making. Good, straight, and simple. Such a message spreads like a contagion among a populace with nary an attention span.
There is even an interesting pattern to this alluring Neo-McCarthy-ism:
If you are thinking or expressing, or have ever thought or expressed, dissent, rational or otherwise, against BushCo, then you must:
After qualifying your statements into meaninglessness, you must politely apologize to the nation and BushCo on television, profess your unwavering support for the troops, preferably while wearing something red-white-and-blue. If you abase yourself this way, then maybe, the right will not call for a boycott on your products, call you a traitor or Un-American, fire you, pull your column, deny you work, threaten your life or your family, or generally harass you in any way.
And if you are not a dissenter, but people think you might be, you must,
Reaffirm your stout patriotism and devotion to BushCo in a slavish manner, display for all to see that BushCo has your balls in a vise, and make a large donation to the Republican party, preferably while wearing something red-white-and-blue.
Lesson? Either back off and shut up or BushCo and its pawns will ruin you. So simple even a neocon can understand it.
The Original Dissenter, Benjamin Franklin, once wrote that "whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech, a terrible thing to public traitors". As we watch our liberties swirl around the bottom of the bowl, these words should give us serious pause. BushCo and its heavy-handed media thugs have gotten away with far too much in far too short a time.
Time to smack the smile off old Joe McCarthy's face. That means, time to fire up the typewriter, the word processor, the fax, and above all, the brain, and let the your news networks and elected representatives know that the only way to turn the country around is to push for democracy here at home, by dethroning McCarthy's legacy.
Allen Snyder is an instructor of Philosophy and Ethics. He can be reached at asnyder111@hotmail.com This article is copyright by Allen Snyder and originally published by opednews.com but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached.
