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Demagogues: Getting Ordinary People to Believe Big Lies

September 21, 2009

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  • Nathan Kagan September 21, 2009 9:52 pm

    About Hate and Ignorance

    Our country is being pulled apart. Part of the country is trying to shake off the old wild-west mentality and join the civilized world. The other part is trying to pull us back into the past to militant individualism, into the dog-eat-dog mentality. And I constantly keep asking myself why some people get so angry when our society is trying to help people who need help. The slogans are flying: socialism, fascism, and so on. And most of the people who keep throwing those words do not really know what they mean.
    So, what are the reasons that some get so angry when we are talking about helping each other? Is it greed? Is it selfishness? “I do not want them to have what I have”?

    I heard from a lot of people who are on a Medicaid, that Obama wants to build Socialism, but they will not give up their social programs. So, they do not mind having Socialism for themselves, but not for others. Some do not even have health insurance, but scream that USA has the best health care in the world.
    So, I would like to send them an invitation to join the Flat Earth Society.

    Some people that supported the war in Iraq, which already cost us countless lives and over a trillion dollars, are going crazy at the thought of helping to improve the health and wellbeing of Americans.

    In my previous letter I stated that for some it is the self-preservation instinct, the limbic brain at work, but these are reactionaries, the hate mongers. Why are so many average Americans, seemingly normal people, so angry at the government’s effort to give them better health care?

    Maybe some of it is bigotry, deep rooted hate for somebody who is different, like Barack Hussein Obama.

    And by the way, about my former compatriots from USSR (Russian Jews), who were second class citizens in our old country. They are the loudest in criticizing our President; their hate for someone “foreign” is pathological. The same Jews that were subject to discrimination in the Soviet Union now are ready and willing to engage in bigotry themselves.

    Immigrants, who were accepted in this great country along with countless others from all over the world, are now talking about others with cynicism and arrogance. They accept all the social benefits given to them, but get very angry at the thought that others could get some of the benefits. That would be socialism to them.

    Insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies will lose billions in profits if the health reform will succeed, and that I understand. They exist to make a profit, which is the nature of a corporation. So, with the help of reactionaries, there is a wide spread campaign to spread fear among Americans, fear of socialism.

    And the rest of the world is watching this nonsense and wondering what is wrong with us. And so am I.

    I attended the Town hall meeting with Congresswoman J. Schakowsky. I heard booing when J. Schakowsky mentioned the name of the late Senator T. Kennedy. We are not talking politics or policies here; we are talking about simple human decency. We may disagree with late senator’s views, but let’s not forget that the strength of our Democracy is founded on diversity of opinions and the ability to freely discuss the issues. To boo at the name of the late senator, who was well respected, 6 days after his death, is just too low for a decent human being.

    So, what motivates some people to behave like angry mob without any sense of intelligence? What the Insurance and Drug monopolies and political reactionaries are very good at is playing with the lowest primal emotions such as fear, anger and selfishness. Fear of not getting what is mine, fear of terrorists, anger at the neighbor who may get what you do not have.

    About selfishness. I heard some comparing health care to a Ferrari – that not everybody can afford it, although everybody would love to have one. To compare the basic need of a human being to see a doctor to a luxury car is stunning in its selfishness and total lack of such human emotion like compassion. And one of the persons I hold responsible for today’s of lack of higher human emotions like compassions and willingness to share is R. Reagan – the former President of the United States. He was preaching distrust of the Government. The Government of the people for the people, the Government he was part of. The same crazies that yell that they do not trust the Government with anything are pro Governmental armed forces and are supporting the Iraq invasion. Invasion with the goal to install “a Democratic Government” in Iraq, the Government that they cursed in their own country.

    Obama’s mistake, in my opinion, is that he overestimated of the ability of the average American to understand the facts and underestimated the ability of the reactionary propaganda machine to appeal to people’s primal emotions.
    He was naïve to count on the willingness of the Republican Party to participate in meaningful dialog.

    Dog eat dog. The reactionary attack dogs like Limbaugh, Hannity and the rest of the pack are barking up their microphones.
    They do not want healthcare, they want blood.
    Nathan