Tuesday, July 27, 2010

"Racist!"- A Propagandist Appeal To Fear

People who throw out the accusation of racism out of propagandist motivation or pure ignorance, are not allowed on the ark.  By the way, neither are racists.

            It really isn’t a complicated concept.

rac·ism  (rā'sĭz'əm)  
n.
       -1.            The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
       -1.            Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
rac'ist  adj.  & n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

However, in today’s discussion of many of the important issues facing our country, the term is flung around by the left with reckless abandon.  Actually, that is inaccurate; there is nothing reckless about it.  The term racism is carefully wielded to discredit anyone who may disagree with the leftist agenda.  It is a propagandist tactic called an appeal to fear.  If there is nothing real to discredit a person with conservative ideas, if the facts don’t support a true repudiation of the opposition, then the left pulls out their Scarlet Letter “R.”  99% of the time it is totally unfounded, but for some reason that doesn’t seem to matter.

Racism is a dirty term and the liberals count on that.  No one wants to be labeled as a racist, and unfortunately once ignorant America hears that term pinned on someone they lock on it, prejudge (how ironic), and refuse to actually hear the facts and opinions presented logically by the accused person, even though the accused isn’t a racist.

If people truly stopped and thought, or even better yet, listened to the actual arguments presented by the opposition, they might actually learn something and form their own opinions based on facts.  Oh the horror.  That is exactly what propagandists fear, but what we, as Americans, have to start doing again.  I’ll tell you, you can bet our great-grandfathers did not vote based on what someone told them they should think.  They listened, they evaluated and they came to their own decisions, right or wrong.  If contemporary Americans did more of that, America would not be in the mess it is today.

Just a few examples that I want the thinking individuals who read my blog to consider:

People opposing illegal immigration are called racists.

How is opposing illegal activity racist?  I have not heard a single Tea Party member denigrate any race, just the ILLEGAL activity.  As a group, they do no oppose Mexicans, Irish, Russians, or any other ethnicity that is currently represented by these criminals.   They oppose the criminals.  Perhaps you remember logical fallacies from high school English?  If not, I believe the term is inductive argument and there is an example of it here (scroll down to the bottom of the page).  Logical fallacies are used in propaganda to trick people into thinking something is true when it isn’t.  It is the tactic being used by those on the left to slander the right and try to discredit the movement to secure our borders.  No one is saying that most Mexicans are illegal, what is being said is that most ILLEGALS are Mexicans.  Do you see the difference?  The left hopes you don’t and so they throw out racist to blur your view.

People who oppose higher taxes are also called racist.

Apparently wanting to keep your own hard earned money is now “racist”.  What on earth does one have to do with the other?  The conservative argument is that American’s money is being taken from us, carelessly spent and often corruptly used, and that we have had enough.  Look back 100 years.  This country ran much more efficiently on a much smaller percentage of the American Worker’s dollar.  Even 30 years ago we did more with less.  Take education for example, my school offered gym, art, music, theater, after school sports all included in my parents tax rate.  Nowadays the same school has cancelled art and gym and decreased its sports program.  Those sports that are still around require the students to pay for their own uniforms and provide their own transportation.  Why is that?  They get more money now per kid than they did then? The answer is mismanagement combined with entitlement.  Just look to any teenager to see this principal in action.  If you give a kid $10 a week allowance, at the end of the week he will have nothing left over (the average kid anyway). If you give him $20, same thing.  Entitled entities are likely to spend anything they can get their hands on and then ask for more when they want something else. That is what our government does now because they know that they can take more whenever they run out of what they have already taken from us.

The right argues that we don’t work this hard so someone else can spend it with abandon.  Nowhere is black, white, brown, yellow, or blue mentioned.  In fact, I would argue it is the left that is racist because what they are truly saying is that the problem is not with their misspending, it is with the people of color in our country not contributing enough.  They are deflecting responsibility by calling the minorities the entitled entities.

All I am asking is the next time you hear the term racist tossed out to refute a position, listen carefully. Did the accused really utter anything racist at all, or is the accuser planting his own racist view into the argument and attributing it to his opposition?  Be wary of propaganda.  It can get you all turned around.  Don’t take someone else’s word for it.  Go to the source.  Look up the accused article, download the indicted speech.  And learn for yourself what that person’s points are, then evaluate them based on their merit not on your political affiliation.

And if you are interested in hearing true racism, check out this site.  You’ll see something I’ve been noticing for years now.  Most racism seems to come from exactly the individuals who cry “racist” the loudest.  But you be the judge. 

7 comments:

  1. It's *not* just the liberals that count on it. The conservatives do as well. Racism isn't a tool of just the left or the right, it is a tool of politics. And a tool of entitlement. And of anyone who wants to boo hoo something because it isn't going their way.

    It's insidious in its use no matter who uses it, be it something they actually believe, or something they bandy about to gain something for themselves that they don't deserve, or are too lazy to work for.

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  2. Katie,

    I have to say I haven't noticed the conservative right using racism as a propagandist tactic, but if you have an example, I'd love to check it out.

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  3. Really? Didn't you see all the coverage of the Shirley Sherrod debacle just last week? Conservative bloggers started all of that.

    And I saw plenty of nastiness regarding Obama's ethnicity during the election, usually by the conservative right.

    And, while not racism per se, don't even get me started on some of the conservative's view of gay people.

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  4. No. I actually haven't heard a single cry of false racism from the right. I did see the coverage of Shirley Sherrod issue and I did watch the clip myself and did find her comments racist so I don't consider that false. I don't like to talk in generalized statements like "nastiness regarding Obama's ethinicity" or "conservative's view of gay people" because that is similar to the propagandist hearsay to which I am referring above. But if you can to direct me to a quote where someone on the right calls someone on the left racist without cause just to discredit their agenda, I will certainly read the article or view the tape so I can see both sides of the issue.

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  5. Katie,

    I realized after publishing it that my comment "because that is similar to the propagandist hearsay to which I am referring above" sounded inflammatory and I didn't mean it that way at all. I respect your opinion and truly appreciate you posting it. I like a good debate. I just meant to say that I was hoping you could point me to a particular example because I think generalizations are non specific and since they don't address an actual event or quote cannot be proven or disproven.

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  6. Well, I disagree on the Sherrod case. Knee jerk reactions based on supposedly racist comments, followed by frantic backtracking strike me as a form of racism, and the blogger who started it all even admitted that he'd taken what she said totally out of context (but didn't go so far as to say he should never have posted it.) But your mileage may (and does) vary. :o)

    As for finding you examples, I'm sure you could find some stuff on the internet if you looked. Most of the stuff I've heard came from people that I know and/or had the misfortune to associate with, so I can't provide you with concrete links or articles. But then, I live in the deep South where unfortunately there's more of that still going on than should be acceptable.

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  7. P.S. I *do* agree with you that it's more prevalent among the liberal left. I was simply trying to get the point across that it would be naive to think that the conservative right is completely blameless.

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