Cognitive Dissonance

[OKDem08]

I have a rare day to myself & I've spent it delving into information regarding the anomalies of 9/11 & have read about PNAC, The Project for a New American Century, the ISI & its connections w/the CIA. I've watched the google video, Who Killed John O'Neill, a story of former FBI agent who resigned in protest from efforts to thwart his al Quaeda investigations. Many of you prob already know that he was killed on 9/11, which was his 1st day on his new job as head of security at the WTC. Last weekend I read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" which details the malevolent effects of the World Trade Organization, World Bank, & International Monetary Fund.

I feel as though I am finally coming to terms w/the true intent of the forces at play. This has been an incredible path to take because...it's so contrary to the way I was conditioned to think. As you grow up in this country, you learn at an early age to recite the pledge of allegiance & become comfortable w/the idea that our country, the USA, represents freedom & democracy and acts w/benevolent intentions. It wasn't an individual moment of epiphany but sustained progress to the determination that a great deal of what I thought, what I was taught, & believed to be true is actually not so. I wonder if a great many others across this country are beginning to wake up to this realization as well.

[firefox_fan]

1. There is the real possibility that 9/11

Was enabled or facilitated by US-based entities. I believe that.

[Toots]

35. Remember how the Anthrax was mailed either the same day or the day before 9-11

The first was received on Sept thirteenth only two days after 9-11. I find that a truly amazing coincidence and even more so since it has been totally forgotten by everyone..Only Democrats received the Anthrax although Republicans controlled our Government at the time. If it were a terrorist strike against our country they sure picked strange targets...But I also notice how docile the Democrats have been ever since...Sort of like waking up with your favorite horse's head in bed with you...The Democrats were made an offer they could not refuse..Hence we have the Extreme Court we now have and Cheney telling Congress to fuck off he is above the law, Immune is how he puts it..

[Lars39]

38. And Bushco started taking Cipro a couple of weeks before...

[emilyg]

45. Hope someday

we'll know the truth. (in our lifetime)

[jarnocan]

56. ME TOO!!! BTW something jumped out at me during the Michael Moore

interview on the Larry King show- when he discussed the TRAGIC consequences of Al Gore loosing in 2000 (partly due to Nadar- whom Moore supported) You could tell he felt really sad thinking back on that.
I beleive the US governemnt was complicit in these crimes against humanity.
I do not know all the answers and neither do those (even on here) that flatly deny it, but I know that there are MANY valid unanswered questions, and a great deal of intentional deception.

[lligrd]

2. It's A Very Depressing Experience

Most of us grew up thinking the way you did and feeling good about this country. It is really depressing to have to really delve into what we once presumed to be conspiracy theories.

[Phredicles]

5. On the other hand, seeing all the cynical things you've said over the years

turn out to be true is pretty depressing too.

[lligrd]

6. I've Said???

I haven't been here for very many years but whatever.

[Phredicles]

7. Very sorry; I meant the general you, and more specifically me.

[lligrd]

8. I See, You Meant Having to Witness The Current

sickness. I agree.

[Joe Chi Minh]

63. Is 'cynical' a synonym of 'truthful', do you think? It seems to me to be

an antonym of idealistic, and indeed, of realistic - reflecting a deficient understanding of reality or realities, because of a pessimistic outlook.

[diane in sf]

3. It's so freaky to look at the truth of this stuff that a lot of people can't

bring themselves to do it.

[madokie]

31. I know several of those

who can't or won't accept the fact we have a corrupt government at the present time. My cynicism had me here from the start.

[Mr Rabble]

4. Thats a good start. Now, time to go to the next level.

Michael Parenti. Spend some time on Youtube listening to what he has to say. Maybe try some Chomsky.

Think it through.

[stillcool]

15. Third World Traveler...

has a Michael Parenti page http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Parenti/Michael_Parenti.html
I never tire of that site..or the Global Policy Forum http://www.globalpolicy.org/

[LibertyorDeath]

19. Hey stillcool47 thanks for the great links !

Parenti is excellent.

Very concise and right on the mark....

Cheers

[sbyte]

26. Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He has taught at a number of colleges and universities, in the United States and abroad.

Some great articles online, Haven't heard of him before.

Is he a marxist?

http://www.michaelparenti.org/biography.html

[Joe Chi Minh]

65. The word Marxism to describe ... Marxism is fraught with overtones

of fiercely hostile capitalist propaganda.

Marxism has crucial weaknesses in terms of its essential materialism, and of its failure to understand the essentially materialistic motivations natural to the person of worldly intelligence, who ipso facto, customarily acquire wealth and an abundance of material possessions, i.e . the rich, the Haves, and the essentially spiritual motivations of the poor, the Have Nots.

However, in terms of its understanding of history in terms of class struggle, it is 2 x 2 = 4 suddenly becoming manifest to mankind for the first time as nothing less than an epiphany.

I believe the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, my church, still doesn't want to take this onboard. But, I hope I'm wrong, as the evidence of the history of mankind suggests that it has been and remains to this day, largely a chronicle of the malefactions and ministrations of psychopaths and fairly extreme sociopaths, and the results thereof.

Since the capitalist culture, with a compliant institutional church, however, has long made ambition itself a Christian virtue, it has kept the ruling classes - I mean the good guys, too - in the dark about the essentially anti-Christian thrust of capitalism, and the exploitation of the poor, 'because they are poor'.

In economics, Conservatism must be progressive or, as with Socialism, it must degenerate. Man must progress or regress. There can be no Christian Conservatism in terms of standing still. We are either for Christ or against him. There are always plenty of the children of darkness against him. In the poor, Christ is the victim in a billion incarnations, and in his godhead, he is our sole reliable hope of finally putting paid to the reign of the children of darkness. Our politicians and parties of every political hue, from the deepest red of Communism to the darkest blue of corporatism/fascism, have failed us. (The colours are the opposite way round, I believe, in the US).

Marx once stated that the tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their desires. And Thatcher was in full agreement with him - though not from compassion, but because their typical unworldiness placed limits on the extent to which they could be exploited by the parasites of the far right. Yet another tragedy is that all political savvy people are essentially right-wing by nature, so that left-wing firebrands of integrity are very rare birds. I think you have one such in John Edwards.

[jarnocan]

57. GREAT LINKS THANKS!!!! nt

[rainy]

44. I love Michael Parenti. I've listened to many speeches by him and read some

of his books. He is brilliant.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

9. Breaking out of the conditioning,...whew, brother.

It's not merely the conditioning of the past but also the intentional conditioning imposed, today.

I do not know whether or not people are PAYING attention, generally speaking. However, I am certain people are becoming increasingly curious about the number of inconsistencies.

[puebloknot]

10. Welcome to the "Coming Home to Truth" club!

It's very distressing to have to face the truth, which is still in the shadows for a lot of people, but having more and more light shone upon it!

To further depress you, but certainly to enlighten you, there are a couple of other books that might interest you, if you haven't read them already.

A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn is one.

The second is written by Carolyn Baker, an activist and history professor at the University of New Mexico in Las Cruces, NM. She has her own web site and posts new information daily. She really has her finger on the pulse of what is *really* going on in this country, and I read her stuff every day.

Her book is entitled: U.S. History Uncensored: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You
By Carolyn L Baker

The book can be ordered on her web site: www.CarolynBaker.org

Here's a description of the book:

A history class you won’t sleep through.
Book Description
How did we arrive where we are now: American society dominated by corporations and their interests, an economy based on war and the weapons industry, trillions of dollars missing from federal government agencies, the annihilation of our civil liberties and the shredding of the U.S. Constitution, the dumbing-down of America and the reduction of our educational system to the lowest common denominator, Peak Oil—the best-kept secret in America, and the polarization of economic prosperity and quality of life?

U.S. HISTORY UNCENSORED offers a non-traditional account of our history that answers these questions and superbly connects the dots between current events and their ultimate roots. As carefully- documented as it is opinionated, this book provides a perspective that assists the reader in navigating America’s precarious present and its faltering future.

[puebloknot]

11. And, another one about 9/11...

... is David Ray Griffin's "A New Pearl Harbor."

Maybe I should send along a bottle of Scotch, as well!

The good people of Germany went through this same kind of epiphany (the good ones, I'm talking about). Germany was, after all, a high civilization. They thought Hitler was just a flash in the pan. This, too, would pass. And it eventually did. But we know at what cost now.

I won't live long enough to read the histories which will be written of this time, the slowness of the American public to wake up, the deceit and the murder. I will simply have to leave a legacy of inquisitiveness to my grandchildren, should I one day have some.

It's good to "talk" with someone with courage to explore the truth. There's so much of it out there that it can take over your life. I guess we just have to "teach one to teach one" and hope to spread the truth.

I clearly remember my daughter calling me to the television on the morning of 9/11, standing there watching and just being swept with the feeling that "this is bullshit, this is an inside job." I've never had any reason to change my mind about that.

[Beam Me Up]

12. Yes, welcome to the club.

One incredible resource is the "library" at the pilots for 9/11 truth forum

http://www.pilotsfor911truth.org

[marions ghost]

13. We are getting to the point where

most halfway intelligent people are beginning to suspect the extent of the problem. They may continue to deny, but at least they suspect it now. You can't blame the average person too much for wanting to believe in a rosy picture. After all, things are stressful enough and 'cognitive dissonance' is a very uncomfortable state of being. Not everybody has the stamina for it. But for those who find denial difficult, there is a certain relief when you can see and define the problem. At least you are validated in your worst fears.

Thanks for your post.

[Usrename]

14. I know exactly what you mean.

I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there. Like a splinter in your mind -- driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about? ...

... You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe... You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes... Remember -- all I am offering is the truth, nothing more. (Morpheus: scene from The Matrix)

I was asleep for most of my life, until some informed posters gently prodded me until I woke up. More and more folks are seeing through this imaginary tapestry that has been constructed to limit our thinking and especially our problem solving abilities.

Here's a link to one my favorite all-time posts at DU; it's a poster that seems captured almost at the exact moment of catharsis. The passion in the entire thread is palpable and moving and, also, somehow reassuring.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5398775#5398991

[MedleyMisty]

46. Wow

Thanks for the link. That is a wonderful post.

[alittlelark]

16. I went through it 5 or so years ago.

It was truly dreadful,I was angry, sad, and trying to deny what I knew at that point was the truth... that the country I grew up loving was not what I had been led to believe it was.

I drank alot of red wine, posted rambling diatribes, and didn't really reach equilibrium for a year or so... I kept fighting it.

It was pretty ugly - I can almost understand why some refuse to accept the truth

[Karenina]

47. I went through it well over a decade ago...

and got the hell outta Dodge.

[ryanus]

17. you will get through it

it's kind of unsettling at first, and you probably will have several instances where you doubt and go through all the evidence again, and you will try to explain it to people who won't be as willing to believe it as you, which will cause you some grief. Over time, though, you won't act based on fear of this idea and your confidence of being yourself and making your own decisions will increase until you feel at peace. This has been my experience. Your mileage may vary.

We are winning.

[Morgana LaFey]

18. You have my respect, my sympathy, my condolences, my thanks

I've been a confirmed cynic since the 1960s, thanks primarily to the antics of the CIA. But what I've learned thanks to beeing here at DU since I've been here at DU has been an extraordinary education, as well as a huge psychic burden. It's burdensome knowing the truth when the truth is as heavy and negative and frightful as it is.

Typically there continue to be episodes of increased or additional "understanding" (and the psychic fallout that brings) for quite some time.

But I'm convinced that those of us who know the truth are meant to know it for some reason. When the whole thing falls apart, as it surely must, we may be needed to help people understand what went wrong, when and how. Or maybe we're meant to help educate others.

So welcome to the Club, however unhappy it is. You have put yourself in the midst of a very, very select and dare I say elite group.

[AntiFascist]

20. In the words of James Bath...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/6/61854/9150

...you can either do this voluntarily or the Bank that's laundering the Saudi money and I are going to inundate you in frivolous lawsuits and we're going to make your life a goddamn living hell. Those were his exact words and he said now I know you being Mom and Apple Pie think that America's about truth and justice but that's nothing but a bunch of horse petui. He said if we sue you, number one you're not going to have money to pay the lawyers to defend yourself against these lawsuits and number two in the unlikely event that you could ever get legal representation, all it would take is a call from George Bush to these Republican Judges who are beholding to him his political appointees and he said you'll never get a chance to tell this story to a Jury. You'll never even get a day in Court.

Actually I'm optimistic that truth and justice will win out in America. The whole point of our being in the Middle East is to maintain the current elite power structure based on the control of oil, but everything is working against them: the war is not going well, the truth is coming out no matter how they try and control it, even the Earth's weather system is complaining about the current status quo of oil consumption. If Pat Robertson were on our side what would he have to say about the floods this week in Texas?

[Twist_U_Up]

21. . Welcome to reality

They must find it difficult...
Those who have taken authority as the truth,
rather than truth for authority.

G.Massey

Zeitgeist
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=928518742089256264&hl=en

[DKRC]

67. Here's another good link

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

:thumbsup:

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

22. I think, we can all take comfort in, the truly thoughtful and touching responses in this thread.

At least, I do.

[bbgrunt]

23. it is not an easy path--that is why it is soooo hard to get others to open their eyes.

[IndyOp]

24. Watch out for the next, inevitable step in your progression --

When you let something slip in front of someone who hasn't a clue and they regard you with rolling eyes as a conspiracy nut who deserves no respect.

I let slip in November 2004 that it was clear to me that the Presidential election had just been stolen and got a big old huff and rolling eyes from a colleague who hasn't been able to look me in the eye since.

I wonder how long we'll have to wait for them to catch up that all the news they should know isn't on NPR or in the NYT?

:eyes:

[cui bono]

25. Have you shown him/her the story of the Ohio convictions for

election fraud?

[IndyOp]

27. Until they display some openness on some issue of importance, I won't

challenge them on this again. If I see/hear and opening, I will use it.

:hi:

[RaleighNCDUer]

34. I was about to voice the same warning.

I don't know what is more depressing -- having your eyes opened to the realities of the past 3 - 4 decades, or having those who should be your allies dismissing it all as 'conspiracy theories'.

[welshTerrier2]

28. a book recommendation

"The Sorrows of Empire" by Chalmers Johnson. The book traces the roots of US imperialism all the way back to the 1890's. Event after historical event is shown in a light not often understood. This would be the perfect complement to the other reading you've done.

For those needing instant gratification, here are a bunch of links to interviews and articles involving Johnson:

http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/cj_int/cj_int1.html
http://buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/056
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/IB01Aa01.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IE17Ak04.html
http://www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=3856
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/10/08/SC50808.DTL

[blondie58]

29. wow- excellent thread

thanks for posting on the Cognitive Dissonance.

This is one that I've bookmarked as I need to go back and read in depth all of the links that have been posted.

I'm trying to read the Assault on Reason now also. Man, I need more hours in the day!

[Jackpine Radical]

30. It's not new. America has had a dark underside from the beginning.

Slavery. Genocide of the Indians. Extermination of the bison (part of the Indian genocide). Our colonial wars in Central America. On and on. It's a pretty depressing catalog.

[HamdenRice]

32. Congratulations on taking the red pill

Unfortunately you can't go back and take the blue pill and you are now for every stuck with the knowledge of our reality.

[Nictuku]

33. For me, it started in 2000

When the Supreme Court ruled to stop counting votes. (I didn't understand why people were not out in the streets protesting)

And then the Iraq War (since when does the US preemptively go to war?)

And then Abu Ghraib (The US doesn't torture!!)

...and it has been downhill from there. I almost cry now when I think about 'Truth, Justice, and the American Way'.

'This is not America'
'I'm afraid of Americans'

I don't watch mainstream TV any more.

But damn, I have to go to work to pay my rent, groceries, doctor, and insurance so I can get up and go to work to pay my bills, so I can go to work, etc. etc.

[ocean girl]

36. everything became crystal clear to me

when I watched the video of the WTC exploding to into DUST – BEFORE it fell.

I had a few years of obsessing about 9-11 and heavy grief about what the Bush administration has done to this country. Now I'm afraid I've become overwhelmed and apathetic about our future and have replaced reading forums with meditating to maintain some kind of inner peace.

[iamahaingttta]

37. Believe it or not, I consider myself lucky!

I've always been cynical, and I feel lucky for it!!

I was born in 1962, and I remember vividly the events of 1968. I'll never forget watching MLK's funeral on TV. I'll never forget my father running down the hall yelling "They've killed Bobby Kennedy! They've killed Bobby Kennedy!" I'll never forget the riots, and hearing gunshots in the night. And of course, I'll never forget the night of the police riot at the Chicago convention, when my mother spent the night in jail for protesting.

The flipside, of course, is that I'll also never forget the events of 1969. My father getting me up early to watch the moon landing, or giving me the tickets he bought for the family to go to Woodstock. He gave me the tickets, because we couldn't go... they weren't going to take young children into that madhouse! Humans are capable of amazing things too.

I remember the FBI coming to our house when the New York Times published The Pentagon Papers. My father was an editor there at the time, and the government wanted answers. The parents made a point of making sure there were children playing in the living room when the Feds came sniffing around. That was probably my first REAL, personal experience with the notion that government was not always of the people, by the people and for the people. As a child, I went to many Vietnam war protests. It was all actually pretty thrilling!

I consider myself lucky, because there were no catalyzing events for me that made me change my perspective. I've felt like I've always "gotten it" and I was ALWAYS willing to "question authority."

In practical terms here's how all of this affected me:

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I left my Brooklyn apartment to go to work at about 9:20am. I got to the corner where I catch my subway, and there were lots of people milling about. Usually this means the subway isn't running, but then I noticed everyone on the corner was looking at the same thing. From that corner, one was able the see the Williamsburg Bridge, with the World Trade Center behind it. The Trade Center Buildings were on fire.

"Holy Fucking Shit!" I said and asked someone what had happened. Nobody knew for sure, but one guy said that someone had seen a plane hit one of the buildings. He said he heard someone say that two planes hit the two buildings, but there's no way that could have happened!

I turned around to walk the three blocks home, and to tell my girlfriend, who was at home sick in bed that day. In those three short blocks, my brain told me the following: It will be blamed on Islamic terrorists. The US government, and the Bush administration specifically, will be shown to be complicit. And, I am witnessing one of those grand, historic events, one that will change everything! Remember how they said 9/11 changed everything? I "knew" that within about a minute.

So that's what you get when don't grow up believing all that conditioning they shove down your throats. It's actually much easier, I think, than having to work hard to discover all this on your own!

Welcome to the other side...

[ooglymoogly]

55. My eyes began to open after slippery dick when I was still

a youngster...and they have been opening wider ever since...so I share your long held cynicism.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

39. 9/11 was my catalyst...

Looking back, I think it was my curiosity that woke me up. Why do they hate us this much?... and then, I found DU...

Knowing the 'truths' have have allowed me to have a little bit of peace in my soul.

Being a tiny piece of the impetus for 'Change' gives me hope, and a reason to get up in the morning. That, and leaving a better world for my boys...

You have graduated from 'Sheeple' to 'Informed Citizen'. Be proud. :hug:

[slipslidingaway]

40. Making the "paranoid shift" comes with responsibility and that

makes it easier for people to ignore :(

[L. Coyote]

49. Being followed does not mean you are paranoid. You might be a leader.

It is not paranoia if it is totally rational. There are things that should be feared.

A good example of paranoid politics is the red scare in the 50s. It was largely based on religious worries about godlessness. Some of the fears were well-founded. However, seeing a commie in every corner was irrational, hence paranoia.

Paranoid politics is a very useful propaganda tool, and it is being effectively deployed today to support Republican politization of the government. Rove's slide show illustrated how important a state of war in 2008 will be to Republican candidates. Now, that's planning ahead. Fear and paranoia are seen as tools for increasing vote share. You are not paranoid if you see this reality.

And that crowd behind you, that's everyone who agrees with you! Lead on.

[slipslidingaway]

58. Thanks and I agree. Making the "paranoid shift" comes from

this article with the same title, some of the article may be controversial to some and it has been a long time since I read the entire piece. Being oblivious and happy is easier and requires less work and less sacrifice, whether it is time, money, friends or creature comforts. The idea makes sense as to why some just do not want to know :( Hope it makes sense to you, it did to me :)


In looking for reasons why many people do not want to believe or even know about the darker side of our country's actions, the author gives this as one of the reasons.


A few snips>> I could not find the original link, but this site has the article.

http://www.serendipity.li/wot/hasty01.htm

Paranoid Shift
by Michael Hasty
Online Journal Contributing Writer

"Perhaps the biggest hidden reason people don't make the paranoid shift is that knowledge brings responsibility....

Forming a nonviolent resistance movement, on the other hand, might mean forsaking some middle class comfort, and it would doubtless require a lot of work. It would mean educating ourselves and others about the nature of the truly apocalyptic beast we face. It would mean organizing at the most basic neighborhood level, face to face. (We cannot put our trust in the empire's technology.) It would mean reaching across turf lines and transcending single-issue politics, forming coalitions and sharing data and names and strategies, and applying energy at every level of government, local to global. It would also probably mean civil disobedience, at a time when the Bush regime is starting to classify that action as "terrorism." In the end, it may mean organizing a progressive confederacy to govern ourselves, just as our revolutionary founders formed the Continental Congress. It would mean being wise as serpents, and gentle as doves.

It would be a lot of work. It would also require critical mass. A paradigm shift.

But as a paranoid, I'm ready to join the resistance. And the main reason is I no longer think that the "conspiracy" is much of a "theory."

[Arugula Latte]

41. I started to wake up in November-December 2000

Until then, I had never imagined that our election system, was anything other than on the up-and-up. Rigged elections were for other countries. That overturning the vote happened so blatantly and easily for the Republicans -- stolen in plain sight -- really freaked me out. But what freaked me out much more was the silence and complicity of the media, and the lack of action taken by the citizens of this country in its aftermath.

Then, outrage piled on outrage. The whole Enron-California blackouts-Cheney-blametheenvironmentalists episode was very, very disturbing, for example.

The depth and width and of the evil crimes perpetrated on a docile, ignorant U.S. public is simply staggering.

Staggering.

I fear for the future of this nation, and, by extention, the world.

[OnyxCollie]

42. Save me.

Through DU, I've learned about: the theft of our elections through secret, proprietary voting machines, caging lists, voter intimidation, phone jamming, swift-boating, and conveniently-timed investigations of Democratic candidates; the torture and indefinite imprisonment of "enemy combatants"; the criminal negligence of Katrina; the illegal wiretapping of Americans; the politicization of our Justice Department; the destruction of our environment for political and capital gain; the criminal negligence of 9/11; the propaganda of fear and intimidation to sway the public to accept the subjugation of our constitutional freedoms in the "war on terror"; the massive corruption arranged by lobbyists like Jack Abramoff, and a war of aggression against a state that had not and could not attack us.

I have stared into the Abyss, and the Abyss has stared into me.

I feel like part of my soul has died. Now that I've acquired this knowledge, this ability to see through the artifice, it is apparent that our democracy has been replaced by a serfdom by which the parasites in government feed their insatiable appetites. There is no way I can step back from this ledge.

I wrote to my political science professor (I'm in grad school), and told him about Presidential Directive 51. He dismissed it as an emergency disaster response to "fix" the errors of Katrina. I wrote back to him and told him I was concerned about what his initial premise was to come to that conclusion. I told him about Michael Brown saying it was a way to "rub Gov. Blanco's nose in it" because she was a Democratic woman. I told him about Blackwater patrolling the streets. I told him about the bush crony hired to clean up the bodies.

If one doesn't believe truly horrible people walk the face of the earth, perhaps the sample from which they draw to make that determination is flawed.

I told him I was a political junkie. He replied, "That's great. I admire you."

Don't admire me. Save me.

Put aside your biases and adjust your confidence interval. Realize that ALL is NOT what it seems. Everything we see, hear, read, everything we experience has been vetted by those for whom it benefits.

[Mrspeeker]

43. /Waves

Welcome to the club, now they will call you a conspiracy theory nut, along with unpatriotic. And it will be the people that have done NO research into anything besides US media brainwashing!

[L. Coyote]

48. Anyone who has spent time outside the USA, learned other languages, cultures

has a very different view of the USA. In my old jungle village in the Amazon, uniformed US Army Rangers loaded the leftists onto a plane. When the planes land, no leftists on board.

The litany is impossible to do even in a book, Chile, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, in recent times. Panama, Mexico ....... where hasn't the USA invaded, occupied, conquered, intervened, killed, propped up dictators, trained killers, etc? Just the blatant military aspects are mind boggling, without getting into the economic imperialism that the militarism supports.

Where were you during Iran-Contra? El Salvador, etc., etc?

[Greyhound]

59. That's the best point I've seen here. I would also like to know how these

people slept through the last 30 years with nary a clue about the world-wide crime spree this country has been on for far longer than any of us have been alive.
:kick:

[leftchick]

50. I help my children now

so they do not become indoctrinated like so many of us did at a young age. I always give them alternative (REALITY based) views of history. As they approach high school I will give them required books to read like Zinn's a People's History, Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson and of course other writers like Vonnegut, Sinclair Lewis and Michael Parenti. There are so many!

Welcome to the real world, scary as it is! :)

[Blue_In_AK]

51. I agree, it's very important to teach your children well

I remember some years ago taking my oldest daughter to see "Born on the Fourth of July." Afterwards she said to me, "Wow, Mom, was that how it really was?" and I assured her that, yes, it was, only even worse. I never made any secret about the fact that I had been a hippie and war protestor back in the Vietnam days, but she had gotten it in her head that those of us who protested were somehow on the very fringes of society, not part of a national movement that finally brought the war to an end. Her American history book only dedicated a few pages to the Vietnam War, and did indeed very much marginalize the opposition...a couple of paragraphs, I believe, written in a very belittling tone.

I know sometimes my kids think I'm over the top with my rants and protests, but I would never forgive myself if I let them go along with their lives thinking everything is just fine. This country is in some deep trouble, and has been for many, many years. We must remain ever vigilant.

[Arugula Latte]

64. I was brought up with the typical propaganda ...

It was only one history teacher in high school who gave me even a glimmer of a different view ... But that glimmer made a big difference to me.

We're raising our kids to be skeptics of "The Official Story." They know so much more than I did when I was a kid.

[ooglymoogly]

52. And let us not forget the "trylattarel (misp on purpose)"commish.

It's members and their aims, and their placement in "our" government, their promotion of nafta, globalization and the new w. order. Now there is a the real eye opener. These people really do hate us for our freedoms and have the power to eradicate them.

[leftofthedial]

53. the truth is out there

but you have to leave "in here" to find it

[ooglymoogly]

54. This site has been and is the biggest eye opener in my entire life.

[leftofthedial]

66. this site is great

but the conventional world is comfortably blind

[jarnocan]

60. BTW I first started researching John P. O'Neill while looking into the

background of John E. O'Neil the swiftboat jerk. I was so shocked and amazed. I couldn't beleive I had not heard of him prior- or at least not so much that it really clicked.

[Joe Chi Minh]

61. Another major epiphany for me was General Smedley-Butler's

book, War Is A Racket. It shouldn't have been, but it was.

[JanMichael]

62. I understand. I once believed the USA #1! constant propaganda...

...myself. Especially when I was very young. Then I stared seeing things like that CBS reporter shot outside a Somoza army base, I was 12 and I lost it. Then I took a course on Latin American Politics in college (1989) and the putrid onion of our imperialistic exploitive nation kept unpeeling.

Same with the economic system the we are under.

Needless to say I still get that headache that you refer to...the absurd relation, conflict, between fact and commonly accepted fiction.