Hello Sid >Dear Keith: > >Are you an American of this class?
I am not an American at all, of any "class". Why do you assume I'm an American? Most list members here are not Americans, they - we - come from more than a hundred countries and just about every society. >I do not like being labeled gullible. > > >"My fellow gullible Americans." > >I am sure that there are gullible Americans, not many though. Do you >think All Americans are gullible? That's what you don't fully agree with? Do I think all Americans are gullible? I don't ever paint with such a broad brush. I will say though, along with many others, that Americans, taken as a whole, are probably more gullible in some ways than the citizens of other OECD nations, also taken as a whole. That would hardly be surprising, considering that the US is obviously the most important market and the headquarters of most of the biggest corporations, that Americans have increasingly been subjected to the machinations of a proliferation of heavily-funded right-wing "think-tanks" for the last 2-3 decades, that during the same period there's been a disastrous concentration of corporate media ownership with an equally disastrous resultant narrowing of the spectrum of reported "news", especially with the likes of Fox TV, that about 50% of this "news" originates in a PR agency's office anyway, and that some $35 billion (with a b) a year is spent on PR (read "spin") in the US, along with another $100 billion on advertising. And so on. Thus is "consent" manufactured. Gullible Americas are nothing but victims of a huge and powerful process devoted to making and keeping them gullible. And yes, there are rather many of them. Thus it is that polls still find large minorities of Americans (previously the majority) who still believe Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, that Saddam Hussein had WMD that threatened the US, that Saddam Hussein was in league with his bitter enemy Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to promote terrorism, and all the other lies and dissemblies that have since been exposed and which even the top members of the Bush administration have now either owned up to, disowned or abandoned. "The United States is not only number one in military power but also in the effectiveness of its propaganda system." -- Edward S. Herman, political economist and author "Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship." -- William Blum, journalist and author Edward Herman is an American, William Blum is also an American. >It was a good piece of work, that >Jennifer Sellers wrote and it was thought provoking which free speech >can foster, something that is may be new to Iraq or expanding. New >or expanding if they do not shoot you or try to shoot you down for your >views. And the best you can manage by way of a response, of substantiating what in Gustl's post you "don't fully agree" with other than "being labeled gullible", and by way of this: >It is in the interest of better understanding that I return comments. ... is this roundabout statement on Iraq, that merely reflects the latest in the long line of ever-vanishing "justifications" for this illegal war? - that it was all about, not 9/11, not terrorism, not bin Laden, not WMDs, not threats to the US, but democracy? Perhaps you are among the gullible, if that's your view. I rather thought it might be when you first posted your unspecified disagreement along with your credentials as a decorated US veteran, otherwise it would have been a complete disconnect. As for being shot in Iraq "for your views", do you really imagine that is why so many people are currently being shot there? Who do you think is doing most of the shooting? Best Keith > >Respectfully, >Sid. Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?list=biofuel Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
