| >http://www.slate.com/id/2302949/ Why is it that you don't think of this as propaganda? At what point does a person expressing their opinion become a mouthpiece? The answer is not so simple as "when they are paid for it," because belonging to a viewpoint is not so simple as being given money. >Really? Where are my millions of dollars? Where is my government-issued sockpuppet management software? What is the source of your ideas? Do you really think you have any special provenance on fact? >That's not exactly the same as two neighbors having a chat. It is _exactly_ the same. The battlefield is over the opinions held in people's hearts and minds. Once a viewpoint owns a man, it doesn't matter whether that purchase was made with cash, with returned loyalty, with loudness, with calls to idealism, with calls to righteousness, or even with calls to "fact" (perhaps the most laughable--fact's provenance as 'truth' makes it the most important to manipulate and therefore the most manipulated). You are owned wholesale by your viewpoints because they define who you are. You were _purchased_, and while it might matter to _you_ what coin was used, you are simply _not cynical enough_ if you think you haven't been manipulated. You say "where is my government-issued sockpuppet management software," but the fact is that you are providing arguments that are very much sockpuppet arguments: the soundbytes we've all heard that don't end in a workable solution, which provoke exactly the generic irrelevant soundbytes that we've also all heard before ("You people who know absolutely nothing about the US's role in Iraq or elsewhere, while calling US soldiers baby killers or propagandists"). Maybe your software doesn't come from the government, but it sure as hell comes from somewhere, and I don't get the feeling that you know where. |
hear hear! Much appreciated