“Okay, so who helped them? Well, like I was saying.… The first thing is you have politicians with the Big Lie, & they’re repeating it endlessly. & that persistence is so extremely effective & comprehensive.”
“You would think a pundit’s job would require more than the exposure to facts & the time allotted for that, but also some time for thoughtful consideration & analysis of those facts.”
“Isn’t part of their job to think? Don’t [pundits] have that duty, & get that privilege, unlike a lot of people, who might be working two jobs & taking care of the kids & such & so don’t have time to ponder anything?”
“But these are pundits who are supposed to give opinions. & you would think that their salaries include time both to be on TV as well as to study issues & to think about them. But why is it then that they are so complicit, even cooperative?”
“Backing up, being handsomely paid to do so, you’d think TV commentators & pundits would bring some thoughtful consideration & analysis to the issues.”
“You would think they would have some understanding & therefore conclusions & there4 opinion on these issues, for isn’t that what they as pundits are required to have? They’re called pundits, they are opinion-makers, they are opinion *havers*.”
“[news commentators & reporters] are immersed in this barrage of irrationalities that is coming out constantly from the Republicans over all kinds of airways, radio, TV, what have you.”''
“And don’t forget a pundit’s job requires they take it in; they can’t just tune out; they have to be on top of these things. They have to be on top of what people are saying, including & perhaps especially the Republicans.”
“That’s a kind way of saying that they didn’t do their job, too, though...the one about seeking out the truth behind the barrage of lies, if they still remember it.”
“I need also point out that these reporters, pundits, & news anchors are working for huge corporations, virtually all of them these days. Only on the Internet is there the possibility of unbiased thought.”
“& we know who owns the corporations...it ain’t me or you or the average Jane. So I don’t think it accidental pundits are unlikely to speak for us. For the people.”
“Well, there’s a tendency, like I said, going right down the line: The wishes of the upper echelons are sycophantically served by those just below them.”
“For those a step down are terrified by the idea of losing their lives of moneyed comfort & becoming, god forbid, like the “unwashed” below. They also, like everyone, have a craving to be “liked” & approved of by someone above.”
“Take my word for it, this jonesing is something in each of us, even those of very high status. It is an urge we all carry forward from our earliest experiences of life.”
“So even those sitting smugly above us are cravingly desirous of the approval of those above thm. & so it goes right down the ladder of status. Those of each level sucking up pathetically to those above thm while patronizing those just below.”
“At one of those levels are the pundits & journalists. You have to remember news reporters, also, from a certain perspective, can be seen as the pathetic little boys & girls they are, still wanting daddy’s approval.”
“[Reporters & news pundits] don’t have a clue that they are coming across as smiling tail-wagging pets eager to please in the foppish performance of their cultivated tricks.”
“Maybe pundits can’t see the Republican lies as much because they are become one with it, not seeing the forest for the trees. Maybe it’s that they’re dancing to a long ago tune, accepting approving smiles as payment for their jig.”
“Like I was saying before about the special interests...Democrats are accused of having special interests of their own. It is often heard that unions are a special interest, that education is a *special* interest.”
“I never heard the pundits or the moderator say, “Well, that’s true, and, Mister Republican, what do you have to say to that? What do you mean, ‘special interest’? You’re promoting the coal companies.”
“Are the coal companies benefiting everybody? By your trying to get them profits, trying to create tax breaks for them, is that going to benefit the people...in any way?””
“…yet it’s easier & more honest to show how corporate “socialism” is actually at people’s expense. So the payoffs to the corporate hogs are hardly indirect contributions to the common weal.”
“Shall we review recent events & remember the gluttonous corp. profits, with thr CEOs sitting down to enjoy 100 million dollar banquets? Bonuses, paychecks, jets & yachts to feast on. Even the stockholders only receive crumbs from that table.”
“And with all their girth, getting hundred-million-dollar “at-a-boys,” you see them giving money away? With all these people having problems, & having foreclosures & everything, do you see them giving money away? I mean...no.”
“Somehow [these pundits & journalists] disposed of their knowing that it was the Republicans who tripled, nearly quadrupled the National Debt under Reagan-Bush.”
“[Those pundits] would not remember that those supposed “tax & spend” Democrats left to the Republicans who stole back the presidency in 2000 a surplus, which they promptly handed over to the rich.”
“I recall how during the Nineties, tax & fiscal policy was so carefully managed by Bill Clinton’s administration. It was touch-and-go maneuvering out of the fiscal ditch; few people thought they could do it.”
“How could anyone, let alone Democrats, balance a budget, let alone *reverse* the huge National Debt at that time? But with Robert Reich at the wheel, they did.”
“So what happened? Just as soon as the Republicans enter the White House, they issue a tax cut for the rich. The surplus was no more. Wow! And, still, pundits didn’t saying anything. People didn’t say anything.”
“How do you explain this barrage of historical malfeasance [by the media & pundits]? How do you explain this lack of reaction [by the press] to obvious wrongness, unfairness?”
“Maybe Americans cannot learn from, even remember, recent history bc thr perceptions & memories are not validated around them. If on the media thr feelings are not confirmed, folks are going to doubt themselves; they’re going to be confused.”
“We were wondering if perhaps it is the continual bombardment of untruth [pundits & news commentators] are under. In such a setting, required to stay immersed in Republican culture so much more than the rest of us,..”
“…[in such a setting of Republican culture] maybe [pundits & news commentators] would find it nearly impossible to be as questioning & confrontational as would be required if they were to truly do their job in helping to clarify events.”
“Besides, [these pundits & news commentators]know these Republican mouthpieces socially; they play golf, have drinks with them, & more in their off hours. Of course these media types want to be seen as civil people, too.”
“So [these pundits & news commentators] don’t want to say, on their TV program, “Aw, c’mon. That’s bullshit, man!” They’re not going to say that. They might think it’s bullshit, but they’re not going to tell us!”
“If the obvious lies of the right-wing politicians & propagandists are not pointed out by the reporters who are questioning them, well then you only have the Democrats to counter these untruths.”
“And if these pundits are also saying that the Democrats & the Republicans are equally the same & that all politicos are corrupt & such, well, after a while, when you hear that enough,..”
“[Democrats] brought in Social Security, Medicare; they supported unions & minimum wage measures that boosted the lifestyles of the American worker. So consider the right wing & media achievement in getting Americans to forget all that? Wow.”
“He was an elected Congressional representative...god only knows how that happened. He was talking on economic policy. He was changing history to fit his argument...which Republicans do, you know.”
“But this guy really believed it! He was saying how it was Roosevelt who caused the Great Depression! He actually maintained it was Roosevelt who was in power when the Great Depression hit. He said the Depression was caused by tax & spend.”
“No, it was Hoover. Monetary policy favoring the rich caused & kept the Great Depression going; tax & spend, for example, Social Security, is what got us out of, not into, the ditch.”
“All this is part of history that is practically—except for you, Steve [Austria]—common knowledge. There were what were called *Hoover*, not Roosevelt, camps full of the poor unemployed. Wow.”
“Anyway, I think a lot of [the current stupidity among those who govern & talk for us] has to do w these [untrue but familiar] things being repeated over & over again until ppl think they’re true.& it’s unnecessary to ponder or question them.”
“It seems as if the pundits felt this way after a while, to the point that when the Republican or conservative would say her or his talking point, it was almost as if that frequently heard statement was gospel.”
“Seeing the media’s response, you would think that drivel had been carried down from Mount Sinai, engraved on a stone tablet. It didn’t have to be reasoned about; it was given down from “on high.” Over & over & over again.”
“At the later time & now, the exact opposite of the truth—that union workers are the wealthy & their leaders are now the fat cats, to hear people tell it.”
“The Republican line, the lie, that unions are entities equally as small & distinct from our society of people as are corporations, & are therefore “special,” & that what is good for unions is bad for *people*, for ordinary citizens,..”
“somehow [this lie that unions are corrupt, that corporations are not] given Frankensteinian life, jolted large & menacing by incessant repetition into zombified minds, blotting out the truth like a monster would the sun,..”
It's a pdf file & looks exactly as the book looks.
Download as many copies as you wish; use it to help Democratic & progressive causes
CW22 19/83
*Culture War, Class War 2022: Truth & Generations*
was written as a primer on history & current events, to provide a context for younger generations, who havent lived thru what this book reveals,so they can understand how we got where we are.
If Democrats don't continue to win big & fight GOP treason the Ukraine war will not be just there. We will be fighting Putin here, in a civil war, if the party working for him, Republicans, get power again.
[*Quotes/highlights:*] “…in ‘evolved’ economic systems, we make certain we will not feel relief from the threat of lack (oxygen starvation/ fetal malnutrition): For we insist on a ‘dog eat dog’ competitive system like capitalism,..” []
*Dance of the Seven Veils I: Primal/Identity Psychology, Mythology, & Your Real Self* is now available to all on my blog & it can be downloaded as a pdf file, with my compliments. Click links.
“[*Quotes/Highlights:*] “The cold, hard fact is that our experience of our birth—that is, the amount of pain & discomfort we experience in the process of delivery added to those first crucial moments & hours...” []
[Quotes/highlights:] “The timelessness of prenatal experience at this point—when not getting enough air—feels horrific, an unending nightmare. This part contributes to human ideas of places of forever, endless suffering, for example, hell.” []
“[*Chapter 27 text begins:*] So, we have these Big Lies, these “obvious truths,” which are actually not true, & they are all-pervasive. It makes it virtually impossible to know what is actually going on.”