Atheist Meditations

So by now I'm sure the blogosphere is awash with bloggers hammering keys in indignation over the recent comments by Secretary Rumsfeld. That old coot just don't give it up, does he? Like the taboo against openly ridiculing the religious, too many Americans still hold to this notion that the executive branch deserves a level of respect well above what they have earned.

Fortuanately, this does not filter down to the lower levels. At our state fair yesterday, a democrat running for office talked about a recent debate he had with his competitor. When the incumbent republican informed the crowd that 'this is the best economy we have ever seen,' the crowd gave out an audible groan. The same reaction when he sought to educate them on how the acts of 'environmental activists' were ultimately responsible for the spike in oil prices.

Tim Wahls (hope I spelled that right, no time to look it up now and risk distraction) stated that 'people are tired of being talked down to,' just given the talking points even when they are insulting to the intelligence of an average fifth grader. Politician are like car salesmen, sure there can and may be some with integrity out there, but the smart stance is to assume each one you deal with is content to hustle ya and move on - if you will let them.

We're 'making progress' in Iraq, or the 'economy is grrrreat!', are statements that require facts to support them. Facts are rarely considered important to the Bush Administration, when the leader speaks; what more do you think you deserve?

Thus I get to this Voice of America story.

For those few readers out there who are new to the ranting of this seeker, allow me to elucidate on VOA. This is not a news organization, it is a propaganda machine that the U.S. State Department has been running since the 40's, originally to counter the vile propaganda of the Soviet Bloc. I know that propaganda is an overloaded and heavily overused term (esp. in my little neck of the woods), but Voice of America is an interesting animal because no one denies that it is propaganda. That is why for most of us, we never hear about it, because U.S. law supposedly forbids the dissemination of propaganda in our free society. It is for broadcast at them not at us.

So we can safely assume that the VOA is one of the best specimins of political propaganda that we can observe and study. Their truthiness is high, it is in the selection of truth where the devil hides.

Still, I can't help but wonder if the cats in the State Department are a bit of their game,


Is this the image of Secretary Rumsfeld they want to reinforce? If I was listening to that speech and couldn't comprehend english, I'd be certain he was calling for the 'final solution' to gays, natives, and jews.

Oops, there I went and crossed the Nazi Line. . . Ever since Jon Stewart gave a hilarious opinion piece on the overuse of comparisons of political opponents to Hitler - '. . . and frankly, it's not fair to Hitler. . . that guy worked too hard, too many years at being evil' - I thought we all were going to lay off the penciling of narrow mustaches upon our most hated politicians.

But then, Mr. Rumsfeld did devote a fair portion of his speech to comparing those of us who criticize Bush's Crusade in the Middle East to Neville Chamberlain (who all of us Civ fans know was a really crappy leader.) Cuz refusing to support their 'War of Terror' is just like hoping Hitler wouldn't blitzkrieg your nation if you pretended to like him.

A few points:

• The list of folks in America who desperately wanted to support Hitler during the lead up to our entry in WWII was long. Here in Minnesota our rock star Charles 'Spirit of St. Lous' Lucky Lindy met with Hitler and was an outspoken fan of Germany's airforce.
• America has a fair history of appeasing great powers. The Louisiana Purchase, whereby we funded Napolean's War Machine is a prime example. He had the greatest army in the world, and the notion that he might take it across the Atlantic was more than mere speculation. If he had, maybe we'd all be speaking french today.
  
• Hitler had the most powerful military in the world, along with a terrifyingly efficient secret police force. The notion that he could destroy a civilization without hesitation was real. Germany was one the cutting edge of technological development, and had the industrial capacities to mass produce the weapons of war.
  
• Islamo-fascism is the stupidest term ever invented, and those who use it are either fascinatingly undereducated or purposefully speaking down to us. Fascism, by definition is more like how a corporation runs than an Al-Queida network. The powers at the top make decisions, and the components at the bottom follow orders. Bin Laden does not have secret police who oversee his every underling and made sure that their loyalty is 110%. Bin Laden runs a loose collection of cells that have very little contact with each other, most have similar goals, but they are not fascist. Fascism is bad, terrorism is bad - the comparison ends there.
• To state the obvious: the Bush Administration, with its dependency on controlling mass media and spin, their love of the 'glorification of the Great Leader', their continual over-identification of themselves with our military, the various programs that are spying on us right now, ect. ect. - is much more following the fascist model.

Appeasing the terrorists and treating the human beings in the Middle East and in other places justly and fairly may be the same thing. Perhaps it could be as simple as ceasing our shameful flow of taxpayer dollars into Israel and the corrupt regimes of Saudi Arabia and that ilk. Maybe if we just got our christian soldiers out of the Holy Land and stopped playing into their fantasies about Crusades and Jyhad.

Just a thought.