Take a Look at Myth-Jacking in Real Time

Note how the false comparison Davis and other propagandists make (e.g., Montreal : Rochester = Gaza : Israel) precisely follows Goering's advice: declare an attack, denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism. Any attack on Israel, however self-provoked, and the myth of an Iranian nuke, are being equated with an attack on US.

I bow in your virtual direction,
Dave "knowbuddhau" Parker
Oak Harbor, WA
Myth-Jack THIS

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GLENN GREENWALD: So what's the justification for Obama's inflammatory and obviously consequential (though seemingly baseless) claim on national television that the Iranians "are pursuing a nuclear weapon that could potentially trigger a nuclear arms race" when the consensus of American intelligence agencies is that they are not doing so?

UPDATE: Regarding Obama's statements yesterday about Guantanamo and investigations/prosecutions of Bush lawbreaking -- which I wrote about yesterday in detail -- the ACLU's Executive Director, Anthony Romero, today said this:

While everyone understands that President-elect Obama will have a lot on his plate when he is sworn in, restoring our commitment to the rule of law cannot be put on the back burner. President-elect Obama is inheriting not only a financial market meltdown, but also a meltdown of a legal system under which the Bush administration has held individuals for years without charge, allowed torture and waterboarding and allowed hearsay evidence in specious military commissions. . . . Closing Guantánamo and the military commissions is a matter of both reclaiming our international reputation and increasing our national security, and must be done immediately.

· Myth-Jacking In Progress, Handle Code 0

[Read the article: Obama v. the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]

As I said last month: Obama is being, or about to be, run like any other asset of the same NSA-type fiends who've been jacking us to hell with myths of mass destruction, and sticking us with the bill, for god knows how long now.

And as I said in February, 2008: Obama is ringing the same ol' cracked bell of American liberty.

ALAN WATTS: But nevertheless the imagery affects us because the image of the monotheistic god of the West is political. The title King of Kings and Lord of Lords is the title of the emperors of ancient Persia. The image of god is based on: the pharaohs; the great rulers of the Chaldeans; and the Kings of Persia. And so this is the political governor and lord of the universe, who keeps order and who rules it, from, metaphorically speaking, above. So anyone who would say, I am god, is therefore implying that he's in charge of everything that he knows all about it and therefore everybody else ought to bow down and worship him. But in India if you say, I am god, they say, Congratulations, at last you've found out. Because the image is quite different. [The Relevance of Oriental Philosphy, podcast download December, 2007 from http://www.alanwatts.com]

Making a false god of "The Great Father in Washington" and then using the power of myth to "put the fear of god into them" is what we do. Ah, but ain't that America? Our business model is plantation. Our PR strategy is that of the Nazis.

SEN. ROBERT BYRD: My hands tremble, but my heart still throbs. I read this quote: “Naturally, the common people don’t want war. But after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.” Hermann Goering, president of Reichstag, Nazi Parliament, 1934.

Permalink Monday, January 12, 2009 10:17 AM

· We're Being Jacked by the Twin Myths of American and Israeli Exceptionalism

[Read the article: Obama v. the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]

I'm watching Democracy Now!'s Davis-Gordon debate. Davis labels Gaza "civilian territory" in blaming Hamas for siting its rocket launchers among civilians. He narrowly defines "terrorism" to mean only intentional targeting and killing of civilians.

AMY GOODMAN: We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Lanny Davis, you’re in full support of the Israeli invasion. Tell us why.

LANNY DAVIS: The right of self-defense. When terrorism kills innocent civilians intentionally, there isn’t a civilized nation in the world that wouldn’t attack back to try to prevent that terrorism. I use “terrorism” with a very specifically defined expression. When a party shoots to kill innocent civilians intentionally for a political purpose, including one’s own citizens to be exposed to death for political purposes, that’s terrorism. So I support the right of self-defense against terrorism, as any country would if this were happening, I believe. And the United States certainly would. If Rochester were being exposed to mortars and rockets from Montreal, I believe that the United States would not sit idly by and allow the Canadians to do that. So I think the first and most foremost right is the right of self-defense against terrorism, which is intentional killing of civilians. http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/12/fmr_clinton_special_counsel_lanny_davis

But glaringly absent is any reference to history beyond the last Hamas rocket. He completely ignores the violence of Israel's 42-year old occupation of Gaza and it's subsequent conversion into an open-air prison, as Gordon goes on to remind him.

And yet, in response, Davis again fails to acknowledge the violence of over forty years of brutal occupation.

Is there any "civilian" territory in Gaza? As the occupying power, how can Israel claim the land it refuses to allow sui generis sovereignty actually is "civilian?"

Davis speaks of the spoken objective of Hamas: the destruction of its tormentor of the last 6 decades; but what is the unspoken objective of Israel in the occupied territories, if not genocide?

Davis makes the same type of false comparison other propagandists have made: if Montreal were firing rockets on Rochester, the US would surely respond. But Montreal, as anyone not blinded by the myth of American and Israeli Exceptionalism aka white male supremacy can see, is not Gaza: the US has not occupied and converted Montreal into an open-air prison, in defiance of laws it helped put in place; etc.

This is what myth-jacking looks like in real-time. Listen to what isn't being said, listen to the Word behind words, and you'll hear it loud and clear.

Permalink Monday, January 12, 2009 11:04 AM