On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 16:14:54 +0000, Ed Huntress wrote:
When the Internet first made so many news sources available to everyone, I
was hopeful, like many people, that the result would be a much
better-informed populace. I've lost faith in that idea. What it's done,
rather than inform, is to allow polarized partisanship to flower. People
like you select your news on the basis of whether it says something you
like. You're a perfect example. You rarely make any attempt to check it, or
even to discriminate among sources. You can't possibly *know* the quality of
so many sources. But you can pile up an endless mountain of "cites," many of
which are just feeding off of each other's b.s., and then challenge someone
to refute them.
That's a prescription for ignorance. You may recall that I took the time to
check one of your "cites" less than a year ago, and found that all of the
first three "key facts" the piece reported were bogus. Nobody can do that
with all of your sources; no one would even want to try. I just assume that
all of your links are bull****, and it's likely that I'm more than half
right, on the basis of what I have been able to check.
Well put, Ed. On the other hand though, as long as people like Gunner bring
these wild stories into forums (and I still don't consider this forum to be
an appropriate one) where they CAN be refuted then the truth will out,
eventually, at least with respect to the sources that Gunner quotes and his
'tactics' in general. Prior to the Internet it was impossible for the average
person to refute such wild tales to a wide audience. Some people criticize
the Internet for allowing such organizations as the KKK and the neo-nazis
a medium to broadcast their views, but I'm one who is happy to see such
wackos on the net. I figure that most people are smart enough to spot
a kook when they see one, and the spewings of such groups only strengthen
people's opinions against them.
The irony is that the kind of bashing that Gunner and others so energetically
re-post here doesn't make converts of anyone. I've never met a single person
who has voted differently because of what he or she heard on conservative talk
radio or it's print equivalent, the New York Post. And I know some pretty dumb
people! In fact I sometimes wonder whether conservative talk radio is promoted
by the liberal-controlled media in order to discredit conservatives by making
them look like a bunch of gossipy paranoid loons. :-)
The kind of bashing that Gunner and his ilk engage in seems only to strengthen
the beliefs of those who ALREADY believe what they believe. I really have to
wonder why they feel so compelled to do so.
--
"Please God, help me cleanse the computer of viruses and evil photographs
that disturb and ruin my work ..., so that I shall be able to cleanse
myself." -- Rabbi Shlomo Eliahu
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