Propaganda

Living in a digital age certainly allows for the study of propaganda.

Email is a particularly effective form of such propaganda.

I was first exposed to this in grad school where shortly after 9/11 I got an email from a liberal talking about some "official" report that stated how everyone should have just listened to Al Gore when he told the government to beware of Bin Laden. Of course, the conservatives never listened and tragedy ensued.

Then several years later I got an email from a conservative that cited another "official" report from Oliver North. He testified that we should also all beware of Bin Laden. Of course, the liberals never listened and tragedy ensued.

Now, only morons believe such emails and forwards.

But we cannot afford to just dismiss moronic behavior and thinking. The problem is, those who believe such flimsy propaganda and outright lies, really don't want to have their minds changed. These are the same people that take ravings of Glenn Beck and Michael Moore as gospel.

One must ask, are those people so far to the left and the right really that far from the fanaticals in other countries whom they despise?

I think not.

Recently, a friend sent me another such email.

To get to the bottom of the forward, I typed as much of the original message as I could into google. Guess what came up? blogs.

As you well know from dear teacherscribe here, that blogs are neither news nor reliable.

The email goes on to state that former president Bush was actually asked to leave Ft. Hood. Of course, there's no credible news source tied to this. And don't you think FoxNews would have been ALL over that in about a split second.

It seems that apparently Bush showed up wanting to console the victims and asked for directions to the hospital at the gate. Of course, word got out that the president was on base. The base went bananas looking for Obama.

Apparently, Bush stayed on base for six hours before word reached the White House and the big bad socialist, Muslim, and anti-America Obama sent a message stating that Bush must leave.

Of course, the big bad socialist, Muslim, and anti-American Obama flew in and held a "photo" session in a gym and did not even bother to go to the hospital.

Now for the kicker . . . as the email states, "I sent my cousin in Fayetville N.C. (retired Special Forces) that picture of George W. visiting the wounded at Fort Hood and I got this reply . . ." and thus the propaganda above.

Of course, the email was based on word of mouth and complete lies. A friend of a friend of a friend sent me this and I forwarded it on.

What is sad is that a very kind gesture on the former president's part is mutilated into propaganda.

Amusing as it is - and I'm thinking of using it as an assignment focusing on propaganda and reliable sources - the propaganda is not backed by a single shred of evidence.

It's interesting to note the outrage on the right at Obama not being at Ft. Hood soon enough (look at the comments from the Foxnews story). Yet, I recall outrage on the left at Bush being interviewed on the golf course as the Iraq invasion was taking place (watch Moore's Fahrenheit 911).

Now, I'm not condemning either side. I'm not trying to get you to side with me on anything - other than to simply delete the forwards sent your way. Or - better yet - send them to me so I can use them in class!

Oh yeah, here's another good example of crazy emails and their absurdity.