Frank Zappa; American National Treasure

[90-percent]

http://www.afka.net/Articles/1989-12_High_Times.htm


Here's some c&p EXTREMELY relevant to current times. (bolding mine)

HT: How do you inspire people to get aware, to read the Constitution, to get involved?

FZ: That's a tough question. You have a right to be literate. The school system that is costing so much is not delivering the goods. I think one of the reasons it doesn't deliver the goods is that it's ideologically more appealing to the right-wing elements in this country to create a nation of stupid people who are dumb enough to swallow their rhetoric so those right-wing elements can run an election campaign which is not based on facts and figures, but on bunting and sound bites that don't really tell you anything. You need a docile, stupid electorate in order for a person to be elected. And how do you keep them that way? You starve the educational system so that it doesn't really work. You control the content of the school books which are used in the educational system. You rewrite history to suit your ideology.

In The Real Frank Zappa Book, I talk about the myth of liberal media bias; I think it's important that this myth be dispelled once and for all. No liberal owns a broadcast license. No liberal owns a major publishing house which creates textbooks for US schools. Everybody in the media in the United States is one of those "other" people, with another agenda which doesn't always phase up with the rights that are guaranteed in the US Constitution. They like to bend the rules and engage in situational ethics, and as long as people are stupid and docile, they won't fight it. Maybe it sounds like a conspiracy theory to say that the US schools have been purposely watered down or made ineffectual, but it looks that way to me. There's no reason to keep graduating people who shouldn't be graduating at all. They should still be in school learning how to be functional. They should be able to do their own bank balance. They should be able to spell at least, say, 2000 words of the English language, and be able to read them, if for no other purpose than to avoid problems in traffic.

HT: Where do you think this myth of liberal media bias came from?

FZ: The way the racket works is this: A right-wing guy who owns the license creates the myth of liberal media bias – with no proof that such a bias actually exists – then demands in the name of fairness that more balance be added into a news story. That buys him the chance to add even more right-wing ideological content into every news story and everything that goes on the air – as if there wasn't enough already. So in the name of fairness and balance, news stories must always contain an extra helping of right-wing agenda. And that's the reason for this whole myth about liberal media bias. It was just a promotion started during the Reagan administration. A very clever manipulation.

RESIST!

-90%

[jeffreyi]

1. I read the article.

Some 1989 words of wisdom concerning he who shall not be named are in there. Amazing.