Ann Rosenthal wrote:
>One of the real dangers of waging information warfare is believing
>the propaganda you generate.
I'll keep this in mind. I think this implies a difference between
"propaganda" and "fact". Certainly a lot of propaganda is opinionated
statement, but some is based on very clear fact. Much of Chomsky's
"propaganda" is based on well-documented facts.
Examples (my own):
"CIA agents were photographed with and trained Contra generals. Some of
these Contra officers later smuggled drugs into the United States for
profit."
- This appears to be a fact, based on journals, newspaper articles,
the actual photographs, testimonies in Iran/Contra, etc.
"CIA agents were photographed with and trained Contra drug smugglers who
poisoned inner-city African Americans with the evil of crack."
- This appears to be propaganda, because it implies the CIA agents
trained the Contra generals for the purpose of suppressing the poor.
Although facts _can_ be altered or "spun", the available facts do
not appear to support proveable truth in this statement.
1 CIA trained Contras
2 Contras imported crack
3 crack is evil
False conclusion from (1,2,3): CIA is evil
Disbelieving propaganda is good; disbelieving proven fact is dangerous.
1 CIA trained Contras
2 Contras imported crack
3 crack is evil
Supportable conclusions from (1,2,3): 1 CIA should hire better generals
2 crack-importing generals are evil
As for me being "nervous" or taking things "personally", I suppose I just
don't want to die. These subjects should be taken seriously, because they
affect everyone. I'm annoyed when argument on such a serious subject in
such a learned forum uses blatant ad hominems like "no longer uses Jr. in
his name" and other statements which do not bear on the issue at hand.
Is MER a good source of accurate information about the Middle East, or not?
Mark Hedges
I earlier wrote:
>> I believe Noam Chomsky, for one, maintains a reputation for entirely
>> reasonable and accurate information.
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