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5.04.2006
I notice that sometimes when I am trying to have a discussion about some political matter that the person that I am talking to is bringing up lots of points about subjects that are only remotely related to what we are talking about. These points seem to be pre-packaged hot button issues presented in a way to create maximum emotional appeal. I find that this sort of prepared stories are the bread and butter of political punidits and talk show hosts. They create an emotional response in people. Listeners find themselves thinking "That's not right" or "That's not fair". I'm sure we could all come up with thousands of examples of things that are not fair. So it was that in the midst of a discussion about the immigration rights protests going on in town that I was treated to a rant about how people from Mexico can come here, kill someone and run back across the border without being prosecuted. And while I found this to be a disturbing fact, I could not help but think that it would be absurd for people to think that most immigrants are coming to this country to commit thrill crimes, especially considering the dangers involved with crossing the border. So while these stories might be good fodder for your run of the mill watercooler talk, they serve little purpose in helping anyone really understand the issues at hand. I realize that most of the crap we hear coming from "opinion" sources are designed to create an emotional response as opposed to actually informing us. During a discussion about the war in Iraq I mentioned that I thought it was a bad idea based on misleading information and that history would bear out the wrongheadedness of this war. To which I was treated to a statement about how we had discovered evidence about Saddam's relationship to Al Qaeda. I said that we didn't attack Iraq ro make the U.S. any safer and the other person shot off that "Its not about oil!!" Of course I think that anyone with a brain would realize that oil played some part in the reason why we invaded Iraq. I think that there was a laundry list of strategic reasons why some people thought it would be a good idea to put the country of Iraq under out direct, or indirect control. Oil was one of those reasons, and to claim that we invaded Iraq to steal their oil is in some way missing the point, and in another way, making it more to the point. | |
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