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calling Hugo Chavez a "dictator"--Hugo Chavez, who was actually elected; who is keeping his promises to the voters, to use the country's oil revenues to help the vast poor population; who tortured or invaded anybody; who continually puts his administration and his policy proposals to a VOTE OF THE PEOPLE.
It's just so ludicrous. And if you ask people WHY think Chavez is a "dictator"--to name some things that he has been "dictatorial" about, they often just pull a blank, or mention some corporate "news" talking point that evaporate when you do a little investigation.
I've been very admiring of the American people and their amazing resistance to the relentless, 24/7 war mongering and fascist propaganda they are being subjected to--by the 5 rightwing billionaire CEOs who control all news and opinion in this country. Way back, just as the Iraq war was starting, FIFTY-SIX PERCENT of the American people opposed it--a significant majority, considering the super-intense, "Big Lie" propaganda of that moment--and it is now grown to 70%. And polls show consistent opposition to every Bush policy, foreign and domestic, over several years time, way up in the 60% to 90% range. But I think Americans sometimes get blind-sided by the brainwashing techniques that are being used against them. When the issue is not front-center and clear--like the Iraq War was and is, or Social Security, or torture, or domestic spying--these crapass lies sneak into portions of the brain that are not on "red alert."
It's fascinating that, while 56% of the people opposed the war from the beginning, in that same early period, 50% of the American people believed that Saddam had WMDs and/or had something to do with 9/11. These "Big Lies" stuck in their brains, even as they were answering a pollster about the war with opposition to it. You can almost see American brains at work in these stats, trying to overcome the brainwashing. Some did. They saw that, maybe Saddam had WMDs or had something to do with 9/11, but these were minor things, not a threat, not worth a war. And some people succumbed to the lies and the manufactured "war fever," but not the majority.
Anyway, South America is just enough off the radar screen of most Americans to be prime territory for the brainwashing "Big Lie," and that is exactly what the war profiteering corporate news monopolies are doing, in what looks for all the world like a concerted campaign (perhaps similar to the one re: Bush/Cheney's stolen elections). The "Big Lie" repeated over and over and over again, in simpleton phrases and brainless images--Chavez, the dictator; Chavez, increasingly authoritarian; Chavez, the self-styled leftist president of Venezuela; Chavez, suppressor of free speech; Chavez, friend of Fidel Castro.
I won't bother to dismantle these simpleton--and very untruthful--phrases, talking points and memes. Believe me, they are as false as they could be--in some cases, just plain factually false, in others, false in their implications (for instance, Chavez IS friends with Castro, but he also has many other friends including many democratically elected leaders, and there is absolutely no evidence that he is imitating Castro, or is anything but a rightfully elected leader who believes strongly in democracy). When people mindlessly these things, I don't think some of them realize how baseless they are, nor how they got into their brains, nor the absurd reality that the people making these accusations are THEMSELVES "dictators"--the Bush Junta and its operatives, and the rightwing elite in Venezuela, whose idea of government is to suspend the Constitution, the National Assembly, the courts and all civil rights, and kidnap and threaten the elected president--to the applause of the U.S. ambassador, the White House, and rightwing Catholic cardinals.
THAT's who they are siding with, when they call Chavez a "dictator"--people who are lying every minute of their lives, who lie for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and who go home to sleep at night at lie in their dreams. Mass murderers, thieves, tyrants, shredders of the Constitution, greedbags, rich elites, the "bought and paid for," and global corporate predators and their 'news' media.
Some DO realize it, and have self-interested reasons for repeating this crap. But others really don't. You have to hold them by the hand and try to de-program them. And you often CAN, but it is painstaking work, trying to get the mechanisms of their brains that respect facts and evidence, and context and history, to start working again.
I've been blogging on this matter for several years now--Chavez, the Bolivarian Revolution, U.S./Bush policy, corporate media lies--and that's what I've learned. The brainwashing works for a while--on people who know little about these issues--but it does yield to facts and truth, if you are persistent. I think it's probably true that Americans are very worried and distracted, right now, and their attention-span is damaged. But I have no doubt about the bottom-line peace-minded, justice-minded, progressive views of most Americans, their good heart, their generosity. They are also bewildered by what their government is doing, and feel powerless and helpless--which is exactly where our Corporate Rulers want them to be. They don't really care what we think. They are bent upon enforcing our powerlessness. And, in this state, some Americans are vulnerable to brainwashing. Chavez is the bad guy, although it is Bush and Cheney who are actually torturing and killing people. Chavez is a dictator, although it is Bush and Cheney who have ripped up the Constitution. That's what brainwashing does. Part of brainwashing is CONFUSING people.
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