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Fighting The Propaganda Machine, Part Three

01/01/11-by L.S. Carbonell
“Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it.” Ayn Rand

Somewhere between 7th grade and high school graduation, every American takes a course in civics. We learn such things as the definitions of the words liberal, conservative, radical, reactionary. We learn various governmental forms like monarchy, republic, bicameral and parliamentary systems. We learn how our government works, how other governments work. Even if we fail to learn 30% to 35% of the material, we pass the course. And most of us forget everything we learned when we reach adulthood. We also, on average, study American history three times – grade school, middle school and high school. We learn a lot of American mythology during those classes, and frankly, how much mythology we learn depends on where we learn it. We retain more of our history/mythology than we do our civics, but there are still massive gaps after we reach adulthood. Be prepared for a blank stare if you ask a 25-year-old who Jakob Riis was.

So, into this knowledge wasteland stepped the conservative radio and television personalities, Christian ministers and Republican politicians. They started filling the wasteland with misinformation, things like “America was founded as a Christian nation,” “there was an immigration quota system in the Constitution,” and “Mohammed was a pedophile,” all of it based on some kernel of fact. The founding fathers all professed membership in Christian churches, a quota system was created in 1921 and Mohammed’s last wife may have been as young as six. The distortions and lies take hold, get spread around through the internet and a whole lot of people are believing stuff that just isn’t true.

This is nothing new. During the Clinton administration, conservative newspaper columnists “reported” that President Clinton had fired every United States Attorney, in an attempt to stop any investigations into his activities in Arkansas. They started with a fact. All the United States Attorneys had been sort-of-fired. What the American public didn’t know is that THE United States Attorney, the head honcho in each U.S. Attorney’s office in America is one of the over 3,000 political appointees made by every new President and they only serve for the term of that President. The rest was pure lie. Disinformation with an aura of truth is that easy to create.

People are not going to go on-line and seek out things that contradict their beliefs. Face it, FactCheck.org doesn’t get nearly as many hits as it should. They are not going to buy books that don’t buck up their misinformation. We know how few people are reading newspapers and news magazines these days. So, what are we left with to counter this deluge of misinformation? Some television journalists have acknowledged that they should not have ignored the lies about the Philadelphia New Black Panthers and let the story get so rooted in the American mind, but they were way too late to that realization.

This is the one area where we, the public, cannot do much of anything on our own. There are only so many hours in the day and we can’t spend them sitting at our computers arguing with the idiots on comment streams. We need to appeal to the big guns, liberals with money, influence and expertise.

Hey, Michael Moore. You produce great documentaries. They get seen by, what, a few million people? Remember television? That’s where you got your start, wasn’t it? How’s this for an idea….instead of wasting your money bailing out Mister-I-Don’t-Like-To-Wear-A-Condom, how about a public service ad campaign? You can start with Melanie Griffith doing that “Amendments to the Constitution” song she sang in 1993′s Born Yesterday.

Yo, La Raza. Instead of an ad campaign to try to make people appreciate how much Hispanics love America, how about one making people see just how difficult the naturalization exam is? I would be willing to bet that more than half the people in this country who can just get their voter registration cards with nothing but a birth certificate can’t pass that exam. How about a few ads about Hispanic history? You know, how the Southwest was annexed into America, how Mexicans were denied basic rights, how Hispanics are not one ethnicity or even one culture. We do have a Hispanic History month. Use it just the way African-Americans have used Black History Month. Educate, for heaven’s sake.

Rachel Maddow has a great idea – bring back Schoolhouse Rock. I swear, kids learned more about how our government works from “I’m only a bill….” than they did in civics classes. It is a proven fact that everyone learns better when something is set to music. Fifty-five years later, I still sing whenever I have to spell encyclopedia or Oklahoma. A few really snappy songs to explain things like mortgage derivatives would be a big help. Think about it. If someone says the words “achy, breaky heart” how long does it take you to get that annoying tune out of your head?

Okay, the basic idea is that the conservatives are filling the vacuum of America’s common cultural knowledge with garbage. Someone needs to start filling it with facts. Leave the really heavy stuff to the news media and tackle the little things – like what’s really in the Constitution, the Treaty of Tripoli, where in the world is Hilary Clinton, the history of the Middle East conflict back to Napoleon, the topography of Afghanistan, how many people would be in the fallout zone if a nuke were dropped on Kabul. You get the idea. Pick something that the conservatives are selling as fact and disclaim it. But do it with immediacy. No one gains from an attitude of “I won’t dignify that with an answer.” The longer a lie lays there, the deeper the roots it develops.

Did you know that you can buy ad time on Fox News without buying ad time on Fox News? You buy the time from the local cable provider. That’s how our Democratic candidate for governor ran ads in the middle of Fox shows.

I don’t know enough about television to know whether or not it’s possible to respond with the speed that’s possible on the internet, but I think that someone should explore the possibility. What a concept! Glen Beck does a whole show about the Black Robe Regiment and immediately an ad runs that explains that the Black Robers were Presbyterian Scotsmen who didn’t give a rat’s behind about liberty. They just wanted the Hanovers off what they considered to be a Scottish throne. Let him cope with the dissemination of the FACT that most American Christian ministers during the Revolution were ardent supporters of the Crown, especially the Anglicans who considered George III the head of their church. Put a camera at ground level on Park Place in Manhattan, at the Burlington Coat Factory building, then walk it to Ground Zero. Use CGI to “put”a camera at the eleventh floor of Park 51 and point it at Ground Zero with the Freedom Tower “built”. Just who’s looking down on who?

It isn’t enough for liberal commentators to discuss some of these things with an air of “aren’t they being dumb.” That just irritates people. As Hendrik Van Loon wrote “Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession – their ignorance.” We liberals are coming across as what we are portrayed to be – elitist snobs. But showing them the ludicrousness of the things they are being told does work. The most feared person in ancient Celtic society was the bard who was really, really good at satirizing pompous leaders. Take your clues from John Stewart, Stephen Colbert and British author Terry Pratchett. Satire is a powerful weapon.

We need to stop running away from the word “propaganda.” It doesn’t help. Sean Hannity routinely refers to the White House press office as the Ministry of Propaganda. So be it. It is time to propagandize. It is time to fight the lies and distortions, the misinformation and spin, the conspiracy to dumb down Americans and re-educate them. We need to get out of our little liberal safe zones, our own blogs and commentators and find a way to reach the greatest number of people possible. We need to do this for ourselves and our country and for the world. Our great Progressive President, Teddy Roosevelt, said “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” He was wrong. We need to speak loudly and clearly and not allow ourselves to be shouted down or silenced in any way.

We all laughed when Hillary Clinton said there was a “vast right wing conspiracy.” I’m not laughing any more.