There's no argument that the health care debate this summer has heated tempers. Cable and online news sources continue to fuel the fire with disinformation or coverage thereof. The whole thing to me is disturbing.
I'm disturbed by the leaps and bounds conservative spin doctors have taken with their arguments. What use to be brokered through nuance has become a genuine campaign of misleading claims intended to scare the bejesus out of the uninformed.
I actually have to admire their tactics. First they convince their constituency that the only credible source of information is from them, by trademarking phrases such as Fair and Balanced. Then they spend years spewing hate-filled, and often racist speech, until it is an accepted norm. Then they introduce historically fearful words like Communist, Fascist, and Nazi, betting that the fear those labels invoke will override the lack of context in which the words are used. Next, add what one would think are normally outrageous and entirely incredulous statements, stoke fear and anger to create a collective frantic state, and then send out your scared, confused fearful masses to do your dirty work.
I find it extraordinarily ironic that they would use the term Nazi, considering this is the exact tactic that Hitler used. He took over the media message, created fear of Jews through a massive campaign of misinformation, stoked peoples anger about the reparations from World War I and then sent them out to do his dirty work.
I'm feeling quite helpless in all of this. As I saw a woman cry on television about the loss of her America it made me wonder exactly what it is she believes she is losing. And then it made me mad. She and others who share her fear deserve to not be lied to, manipulated and used by power brokers willing to do anything to win.
Who thought people could be persuaded to not want health care? It worries me and makes me what else could the misinformed be persuaded to do?
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