spunky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Given your point then Bob... isn't everyone a CT,
> who really knows our "true" reality at any given
> point in time? Does truth exist? Or is it our
> perception of the truth as we happen to see it
> ever how twisted it may be from reality. Sort of
> like the gossip game kids would play in school,
> the teacher starts a message out with one student
> until it goes through out the class only to become
> something else entirely. Our world is a lot like
> that classroom except with a lot more at stake,
> but the same communication problem...because
> humans are involved.
Well, I forget who it was, but someone in Bush's Administration told a reporter "We're an empire now. While you are trying to figure out reality, we're creating new ones" (or something to that effect.)
Take the Iraq war. Was it WMDs? Was it 9/11? Was it oil? Ask 10 people why we invaded Iraq, and you'll get 10 different answers. Even George Bush now says that the reasons for invading Iraq were based on incorrect information. Yet somehow, in our new reality, it was still justified. Some people will never accept that it was a mistake, because they suffer from cognitive dissonance. CD, is, of course, one of the flaws in human nature that is exploited by people pursuing agendas. It is easy to use the concentrated power of misinformation to override the diffuse interests of the majority.
Calling something a "Conspiracy theory" is an easy way to dismiss uncomfortable information. Just look at how people will use all the straw men arguments to dismiss any questions about 9/11. As soon as you question the official story, people start throwing around "remote controlled planes" and "missiles" and what-not -- If I find it suspicious that our air defense protocols failed for the first time since they were created 60+ years ago, I must believe that the planes were remote controlled. If I mention that Payne Stewart's lear jet was intercepted by two F16's moments after it failed to respond to air traffic controllers, 23 months before 9/11, I must believe that a missile struck the pentagon.
If you want to see a blatant example of misinformation, read this week's newsweek article about Gaza, and then read Time's article. Time obviously wants to imply Iranian malfeasance by suggesting that "it is believed Iran is supplying the rockets" while Newsweek states that our own intelligence agencies have determined that the rockets are too big to fit in the tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle weapons into Gaza.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/177728
U.S. officials are also playing down Iran's support for Hamas in the ongoing war with Israel. While Hamas has certainly received moral and financial support, current and former U.S. officials say the sophisticated rockets Tehran has supplied to Hizbullah forces in Lebanon are too large to fit in the tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle weapons into Gaza. They also dismiss reports that Hamas might soon have weapons capable of hitting Israel's nuclear weapons factory at Dimona.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1869152,00.html
But even those modest goals will be hard to reach. Despite an 18-month blockade of Gaza, Hamas has shown itself to be adept at smuggling in rockets, many of them believed to be from Iran.