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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Propaganda and Entertainment

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

Information is what we have to base decisions on. Often, the information we use to make those decisions is incomplete. More often, it is deliberately twisted to lead us in directions that the presenter wishes us to go.

A recent episode of the TV series "Life", for example, issued the flat statement that U.S. military personnel receive "less than minimum wage". One of those little propaganda lines inserted into entertainment in order to promote a philosophy.

Little messages like the above are sprinkled all through our entertainment media. A constant barrage. Soldiers are stupid. Ex-Soldiers are the most common source of criminals and the homeless.

Oh . . . there are exceptions. Soldiers who oppose what the writers oppose and disobey orders and act against the interests of their own country (as long as that country is the United States) are heroic and intelligent.

Sometimes I wish the people who put all those stabs at soldiers into shows could get the lives they would have if others were not holding the walls, but for that to happen the rest of us would be dragged down with them.