Friday, May 14, 2004

The Thing That Bugs Me the Most About the Whole Wingnut Cabal...

Sun Myung Moon owns and manages the Washington Times, which spouts a lot of the wingnut* propaganda, and is part of the so-called "echo chamber" that includes Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove's machinations of the press, and Fox "News." This is the same guy who started the Moonies, the most famous cult ever, partially for brainwashing its inductees. Moon also claims to be the second coming of Jesus Christ.

*A "wingnut" is someone who is a hardcore right-wing conservative Republican, also called a "neocon" these days. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Ann "shock shrew" Coulter, Sean Hannity, Tom DeLay, Newt "the Godfather" Gingrich, and the late but not lamented Lee Atwater are all examples of this sour breed. They are a worse threat than communism or even socialism (both themselves pretty incompatible with our free republic) to America, and unchecked may really turn America into one of those squabbling hell-holes we often refer to as "the third world." That is their vision. They want to be kings of the garbage heap. Power is their goal and their end. Democracy and a strong America are NOT their goal. Historical, moderate Republicans do not fit into the category of "wingnut," as they have championed smaller, less intrusive government, and have historically been interested in preserving privacy and human rights. Wingnuts will throw you in jail if you get in the way, which is evident by their latest clusterfuck of American liberties called "The PATRIOT Act" passed in the heat of the attack on our nation by Islamic fanatics. The PATRIOT Act is the red-headed bastard step-child of the Drug War, which introduced "civil asset forfeiture" into our laws, allowing the government to take your money and possessions without proof or even conviction of guilt. You can't paint it any other way, these people are evil, and as anti-American as it gets. The Founding Fathers would beat these guys to death like rats found nibbling on children's toes.

Even more surreal, the self-proclaimed Christian warriors like Jerry Falwell (btw, I've always thought his name was a bit of a cosmic joke on God's part: "fall well"), Pat Roberson, and the odious Ralph Reed are all in bed with Moon, participating with him in the drive for the dubious "faith-based initiative" that increases "religious participation in government-funded social services." Let's stop and really look at this. Moon claims to be Jesus Christ. Falwell and his ilk claim to preach the Gospel, and claim to be the holiest men we could know. Yet they pal around with a guy that essentially proclaims one of the biggest most egregious heresies one can commit, and claims something that anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the Gospel would know is a outright lie. Not that many Christians take these guys seriously as legitimate Christian leaders or examples, but this is a particular hypocrisy that would be rather easy for any newsperson worth their salt to spell out even to the simplest audience (meaning even the viewers of Fox "News" would understand it).

And our current wingnut administration pals around with Moon. This guy created a cult so powerful that getting people deprogrammed from it has been a cottage industry since its inception. Again, the people who run our country are close with a guy who started a cult whose main goal is to immediately remove all freedom and independent thought while emptying their bank account. (I guess the parallels aren't so mysterious after all.)

The Washington Post, owned and controlled by Moon, is somehow taken seriously as a news outlet, when it clearly is just a propaganda machine for the wingnuts. Now, I can see them being happy with having such a powerful media machine, but have they stopped to consider that Moon's motives for undermining legitimate news might be different than theirs? (Not that undermining legitimate news is ever a good thing.)

In the aftermath of the two World Wars, America passed laws that barred foreign people or corporations from owning any media outlets in America because they had seen the power of propaganda in Germany, and then in communist Russia. They rightly feared that if a powerful foreign interest could control, suppress, and manipulate our free press to subtly, or not so subtly, force their propaganda on us, enough people who don't pay attention would slowly adopt those ideas, and they would have won with words rather than bombs. Those laws were abolished in the massive deregulation under Reagan. And here we are, right where "the greatest generation" feared we would be: the vast majority of our media owned is by powerful foreigners, and a good portion of it is just a propaganda echo chamber that undermines our free press and thus our freedom. Rupert Murdoch, another wingnut propagandist who owns a lot of media, including Fox "News," at least is not the leader of a religious cult, and hasn't proclaimed publicly he's Jesus. But why are these foreign owners all pushing the wingnut agenda? Because they think it's good for America? If you believe that, perhaps you should become a Moonie.

Why do we allow Moon to own the Washington Times? Why aren't other (competing) media outlets crowing from the rooftops about this insanity? Why are the most powerful people in the world allowing this loon among them? Why do congregations allow their so-called religious leaders to still lead them when those leaders go do lunch with Moon after church?

This will be my new gauntlet that wingnuts will have to pass to even begin discussing politics. If you do business with someone like Moon, don't expect to talk to me about freedom, and patriotism, and doing what's best for our beloved country.

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