We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Big Falsehoods: An updated guide to Andrew Breitbart's lies, smears, and distortions

from Media Matters for America

I noticed that when the recent brouhaha over Shirley Sherrod's firing was revealed, mainstream media focused on the embarrassment of the Obama administration and NAACP. The focus, of course, should have been on the deliberate disinformation efforts of right wing media. This article, although it focuses a bit too much on Breitbart's shenanigans, helps to frame the issue on right-wing disinformation campaigns.

I believe that mainstream media's reluctance to frame the issue appropriately is because the ruling class is using right wing media to confuse working people of the US, to deflect their anger onto others and away from the economic collapse caused by finance capitalism. Such a strategy is an old one, but has been very successful. The Nazis were very good at it.