Repeating something or saying it louder, does not make it true. “A lie told often enough becomes truth” – Vladimir Lenin, “There’s nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.” – William James; these are quotes that apply to today’s political environment. Fox News repeating that they are “Fair & Balanced” does not make it true but: Fox News – A Voice for Conservative Americans – now that is truth! Everyday I see and hear smart people repeating tripe that make me ask, how gullible can you be, or to ask them to cite their sources. Rhetoric is not a source.
Recently a friend posted something on Facebook that reported President Obama would cancel The National Day of Prayer, observed in May each year. He was offended and then the post made some asinine comment about Muslims. He also asked in the post, “If you agree, copy and paste no matter what religion you are, this country was built on Freedom.” Even though this report is untrue, it has made its rounds on Facebook since Obama became President. Now here is my taking it one step further – If, ” this country is built on Freedom” – why couldn’t President Obama be free to end The National Day of Prayer? Why can’t he be free to be a Muslim? Or is the American Freedom they speak of only freedom to believe the same as them? Why are so many outraged when someone (especially in leadership) has a thought or belief different from theirs?
One reason I love “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “Real Time with Bill Maher” is because these shows point out the exaggeration and hypocrisy used in politics and the media today. 
Fox News, conservatives and now birthers (people who do not believe President Obama was born in the U.S.) make themselves easy targets to be mocked by these programs because of the huge doses of hyperbole that they use. I feel the reason is they only hear themselves! They are spewing this misinformation nonstop and never stop to listen.
Birthers began demanding, “Show us the birth certificate!” Once the birth certificate was made public, they questioned its validity. When the State of Hawaii verified the birth certificate was legitimate, they started making up things about how Hawaii did birth certificates in 1961 that make it a fake. The excuses why they cannot accept that President Obama was born in the U.S. has to based on some crazy conspiracy theory similar to U.F.O.s in Roswell, Area 51 or the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories. Obama was born in the U.S., we have freedom of religion so why would it be a problem for him to be Muslim instead of Christian, and what frightens them most ….. could it be the one point they do not argue… he is black. They need to just stop and listen to how ridiculous they sound, but with a majority of Republicans believing President Obama was not born in the U.S. – crazy is something we may have to get used to.
Now that there are birthers elected into Congress, I see them the same as all politicians – only concerned about themselves. Many campaigned on cutting wasteful government spending, but they will not try stopping the farm subsidies they receive. Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-TN (over $3,000,000); Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-MN ($251,973); Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT ($230,000); Sen. Gordon Smith, R-OR; Sen. Ken Salazar, R-CO; Senator Charles Grassley, R-IA ($654,000); Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-SD (her father received over 750,000); get farm subsidy checks from the government, but Congress is NOT trying to cut farm subsidies. Instead they are trying to cut: education, Head Start, school nutrition programs, elementary education, Pell Grants, the EPA, transportation, Planned Parenthood, Americorp, financial regulators, health research, the CDC, job training, heating for poor families. I see them as bullying the poor. Why are they not wanting to find and cut waste in the Defense Budget? Finding ways to cut and find savings in Medicare/Medicaid and/or Social Security? They prefer misdirection to hide their hate and lack of compassion for the poor and needy! They need you to be afraid and HATE also!
The distance to being poor is closer than your backdoor!
Not checking the accuracy of reports and further, asking others to repeat inaccurate (lies) reports, is irresponsible. This is happening more and more! “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporality embarrassed millionaires.” – John Steinbeck. As Americans we need to care more about kids, the poor and the jobless than the defense! Maybe that is where we can or should agree to begin! I look forward to the day when Congress is looking for “who” needs help more-so than their own personal interest. To quote Jesus, “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.” Matthew 25:45. This is what should be repeated and loudest because it is TRUTH!!
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/31/welfare_tea_parties
Thomas Johnston 
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I agree: repeating a lie repeatedly enough doesn’t make it the truth.
Why then do the mainstream media and Liberals expect us then to believe their mantra, just because they say it loud and long?
My question is what do you feel is the “mainstream media” now in this internet age – the networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), publications (Time, Newsweek, US news and World Report), Radio? I do not think so. The concept of a “mainstream media” is archaic and the idea they could have a centralized idea (mantra) is laughable. But for me to properly respond, I would need to understand what you feel is MAINSTREAM media today, because the mainstream of the past is not true for today; unless the half hour Comedy Central show “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on basic cable 4 days a week or the 1hour HBO “Real Time with Bill Maher” on a premium channel one time a week is considered mainstream. I do not know who this “mainstream media” is or what their mantra is! Fox News dominates the ratings, so I would guess that made them the “mainstream media”!
Even with the Internet (blogs, Facebook…) network news, CNN, local papers, AP the mainstream media still reach more people, 75%, last I heard. Its a fact, not a political opinion! So do not underestimate the influence of the mainstream media. Fox and foxnews.com are big players but not as big as the mainstream media, overwhelmingly Democrat. For example look at the bid daily news papers, almost all solidly Democrat.
Also not everyone that disagrees with conservatives is Liberal…. some of us are moderate….. but the right keeps going further and further to the right making the middle even less liberal.
Oh, THANKS for reading my blog and having a discussing the topic! I am happy when someone reads my blog, but to also engage in a discussion makes me even happier! 😉
Glad to do it. I enjoy reading opinions that make me think, even ones that I don’t necessarily agree with.
True, we have an Internet age with more opinions and maybe more sources, but when you flip through the sources you mention, such as the news magazines and alphabet soup of television networks you can’t escape the same template and message throughout.
Fox might dominate the ratings but anymore their opinions certainly aren’t Conservative.
As for the idea of being politically moderate, can you name a significant “moderate” in world history who did good by liberating a nation or standing up to a tyrant? But see, now we’re off the issue of your blog. Your blog wasn’t about moderates, it’s about how people repeat lies long and loud enough to form the premise that their lies are in fact the truth, and my suggestion is that the alphabet soup of media outlets and publications have fallen into the trap of repeating lies long enough and loud enough under the false premise that they are telling the truth.
My point – the the alphabet networks and news magazine can’t organize a central message like Fox News does and no longer has the audience to be considered loud and the only ones that used to give them attention now watch Fox News!! lol How far right are you that you do not consider Fox News conservative? lol
The point off subject – I do not feel nations need liberating by the U.S.! Only with a real unified world effort should liberating be done – even if there is a tyrant involved. More than the U.S. should see the value of liberation and absorb the COSTS of war. Teabaggers want to cut spending…. let’s stop spend TRILLIONS on wars with no goals. But as teabaggers have shown with this budget standoff, they are only interested in money that is contrary to their own social agenda. So, to the point of the topic…. they should be screaming about the millions spent on the F-22 that has still not been used in any war, conflict, or humanitarian relief efforts. Americans get more use from Planned Parenthood than the F-22, but it is their personal (most likely religious) beliefs that they are trying to use the government’s money to control! Read my earlier blog showing how many in Congress get farm subsidies…. did they cut that? No! The teagaggers are selfish legislators that are only interested in their own goals not not what is nest for America.
“Let’s stop spending TRILLIONS on wars with no goals.”
I agree. Let’s stop spending money on this undefined war on poverty. How long have we been engaging in this one with weapons such as welfare, food stamps and the like and yet there are more people in America today who could be classified as poor?
As for your F-22 vs. Planned Parenthood debate, I support the F-22 and I do NOT support Planned Parenthood. One falls under the Constitutional framework of national defense and the other is a smoke screen argument for murdering innocent human beings.
I’ve worked in agriculture and I will agree with you that American farm subsidies are a joke. That’s such a convoluted issue that I don’t think anyone in America can explain it… and that’s part of the problem!
Isn’t the word “teabagger” a vulgar slur akin to some of the racial slurs that Liberals are trying to ban from our spoken and written lexicon?
I can agree that the war on poverty is ineffective! But since I live on the verge of being impoverished, I find some peace in my soul helping poor people with my taxes versus killing people in the name of making the world safe from terrorist! This blog gives some insights on my opinion of the U.S. creating terrorist vs liberating people (https://thomasajohnston.com/2011/01/13/not-even-if-there-was-a-ladder/). I feel my value as a human would be diminished if I did not have an ideology of empowering or helping the poor. I feel the idea of what is best for ME is best is the new American ideology. I like the concept of America being the humanitarian nation for the world more so than the police of the world.
I will just say, I do not see that we will come to any agreement on the abortion topic. I feel an embryo is not a human life until it can sustain its own life separate from the mother. I do feel abortion is a last option, but also feel it is a viable option for women and families. Watching the documentary “Freakonomics” points to a possible long-term societal advance as a result of legalized abortion (it is just an observation). I feel it is a price of freedom to allow ideas different than our own to be acted upon. To me, it is detrimental to freedom to legislate based on a personal belief-system. My idea of small government involves less intrusion by the government in matters of an individual or family. But abortion and fighter jets would not be needed if the populous and the government of the U.S. exercised self restraint and did not seek immediate gratification for desires.
I do not feel racial slurs are a liberal or conservative issue, but I societal issue. I feel it is the religious ideologies that is trying to sensor Huckleberry Finn and a liberal or conservative idea. I do not know what group is at the root to seek the kinds of changes you mention, but feel most liberals would be in favor of not changing literature or censoring art or expression. My opinion is – conservatives would more likely to censor than liberals. But as I say in my blog (repeating Bill Maher), I will stop calling them teabaggers when they stop calling it Obamacare. It is just an equal use of derogatory terms. I also to not equate derogatory slurs with racial slurs. Racial slurs are vicious and based on an uncontrollable aspect of life. – you cannot choose to be black or white, gay or straight (that is added for dramatic effect) but you can choose to be intentionally derogatory ton political ideals!! I use it as a derogatory slur of political beliefs. Political beliefs are a choice…. I used to be a moderate Republican ans as the party moved further right…. I stayed in the middle and that has made me more liberal I guess. Now I say I am a little left of center as conservatives move the Republican more to a party of social issues rather than fiscal issues. I am a fiscal conservative with liberal social values.
I’m dead broke right now, so I know full well what poverty is. I’m getting some support from family in the way of an old vehicle to drive, for which I’m very grateful. Nevertheless, I feel bad and am embarrassed by the fact that I can’t even afford my own vehicle right now. I’d feel even worse if the government forced my neighbors to buy me a vehicle, even if it was new and something I truly wanted!
I give what I’m called to give to my church, which of course is voluntary. Government already takes enough from my meager pay check, so it does bother me that government decides without my permission where and who to give my taxes to.
I’ll agree about racial slurs not being liberal or conservative, though if you look at history you’ll find it was the Democrat Party which supported and made up the KKK, so in that sense, slavery and civil rights and all their slurs were brought on by the Democrats.
As for your comments toward censorship, I strongly believe that censorship from either the right or the left is abhorrent and something I continue to strongly oppose.
As time goes on I’m finding myself becoming even more Conservative as I see the Democrats moving left of Stalin and the Republicans following closely behind, which is why I reluctantly support Republicans during the election. If I had a choice there would be a very viable third party that was more to the right of the current GOP so that the GOP could focus on playing the moderate card while those of us who are truly conservative could vote that way.
Even so, I do appreciate your tone here in discussing things that it’s obvious that neither of us agree with and hold strong opinions over. So in that sense I applaud you (in a very positive and respectful way) for this discussion.