communist or terrorist, it's all the same to them

You know, this whole "either your with us or against us, support the prez or you're anti-american or a terrorist sympathizer" bullshit that's going around out there really reminds me of McCarthyism in the 1950's. But instead of Soviet communism, the threat is Muslim terrorism. Makes me wonder if we have to put up with this for a while until the people reach critical mass, and start a new countermovement against this rampant conservativism. Maybe in 10 years we'll have some kind of neo-hippy movement or something like it. I don't think we're there yet. The threat is too new, people are all still scared. But I think eventually people are going to start noticing the infringments on their rights, the major stifling of critiques on the status quo, and are going to start questioning the legitimacy of the situation.

 

Very good points, except the "neo-hippy" movement is already here. Have you heard of the "global justice" or "anti-globalization" protests?
Check out a video called "This is what democracy looks like"...you can get it from www.thisisdemocracy.org
you can get a description of what it's about on the site i'm pretty sure. Great documentary for those who are interested in the new revolutionary movement.

 

That's all very true..

but this time the ignorant fool is president..

This terrorism BS is just like McCarthyism. History does repeat itself.. Wouldn't you think that society would learn from its mistakes and could look back on such an event and recognize the injustice? Well I would hope so, but unfortunately in our society today people are too busy with their trivial, materialistic lives to even try to think something through for themselves. They just go right along with whatever the establishment tells them is right, never questioning anything. Things will never change, and history will continue to repeat itself as long as ignorance has it's hold on humanity. And the way things appear now, that could be awhile.. It's going to take more than a revolution.. more like an evolution of human consciousness....

 

I totally agree w/ everything said! I have been telling my friends about my theory of terrorism being the new communism, and they don't really listen. It's true, though. Bush was extremely lucky for 9/11 b/c the country became paralyzed in fear of something else happening. The nation gave Bush all the power he needed to launch what the UN Sec. General Kofi Annan declared as an illegal war. The country stopped concentrating on lost jobs and the failing economy. According to UN, the gap between the rich and poor is growing faster in this country than anywhere else.


And now, w/ the Patriot Act, the gov't can tap phone lines, read any electronic communications (including email), and intercept cell phone calls w/o a search warrant. Public libraries are required to turn in a list of internet users and the sites they visited. All of this in the name of terrorism. These are just a few, but too many people, myself included, know next to nothing about what our gov't does. The gov't is supposed to be controlled by the PEOPLE, not some faceless, corrupt corporations raping the enviroment.

The country can't trust the gov't to watch out for our interests anymore than Enron employees could trust the company accountants. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" Voltaire. We must be vigilant and protect our rights as citizens against gov't intrusions. Watch out for the gov't gaining too much power. When it does, it will be too late to stop it. 1984, anyone?

Peace,
Kim

"The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. "
Benjamin Franklin

 

I had a kid tell me just the other day that McCarthy was a good guy, and that he just drank a little too much!! Regardless I totally agree with what you're saying. Osama Bin Laden not being caught, not knowing if he's dead or alive, the war on terrorism, and that patriot act are all things that put Americans in fear. No one in America (I like to hope no in the world, but thats pushin it) would say terrorism or the 9-11 tragedy are good things, but at the same time the media here and our government drastically exaggerates issues and twists them so that things like governments that aren't a democracy are evil, every middle-eastern person is evil, and that we are doing the world justice by fighting this war on terror (which I guess Russia isn't part of the world because we're giving them tons of help..*sarcasm*) are all justified and even good things. Our government even wants racial profiling to be legalized to help the fight against terror, and that is evil. It's really terrible the abuse of power thats going on in this country, and how blind so many people are towards propoganda.

 

you all make really good points,
what I see as a temporary solution, or a "good start" would be to just be more careful of where you get your news. Nowadays, the mainstream (corporate) media cannot be trusted the vast majority of the time (minus CNN's Lou Dobbs...and he's literally the ONLY one).
The internet is the best place to get truthful stories from reliable sources. Not to say that they aren't biased (they self-admittedly are) or don't contain errors, but at least there's no rightwing agenda.
For news, I recommend:

www.commondreams.org
www.indymedia.org (of course)
www.alternet.org
www.leftturn.org
www.zmag.org
www.corpwatch.org

 

Darth Vader is coming for you all. He is tired of your incessant ramblings

 

yeah hey terrorists didn't attack us! This is just like fighting the vietkong!

 

Lou Dobbs? LOL. He is perhaps one of the most unquestioning moutpieces of the big money status quo if ever CNN had one. Jonathan Mann, with his soothing tonal inflections, is another equally false purveyor of what CNN pretends is "insight" into the issues of the day.

One need only spend some time cataloguing the personages called in most often to give their "expert" assessments of the issues and even with CNN you will see that neo-cons and their hangers-on far outnumber any serious progressive critics. Even when such critics are sought out for their input, they are often coupled with more of the same right wing lying rubbish who roll their eyes in the background whilst the dissenting view is presented.

All in all, corporate owned media serves big money interest alone, misinformation is their product regardless of how exciting and glossy the packaging in which they wrap it.