The Duping of America
by Mike Lince
Yes, America, we have been duped. Language is one way we are manipulated through mass media. Deep divisions between groups are often the result of stereotyping. We use words like weapons on one another to reinforce these stereotypes. The people on the left are labeled liberals, socialists, commies, takers, bleeding hearts, and libtards. When religion creeps into the conversation, a lefty is often called godless, atheist, and anti-Christ. People on the right are labeled nut jobs, homophobes, racist, greedy, mean-spirited, and enemies of the poor. Through the prism of religion, a righty is often called Bible thumper, faithfool, and Christard. There are also derogatory terms especially for Muslims and Jews. We have all read and heard them – towel head, raghead, Hebe, Yid, Kike.
Within the safety of our private internet world, we freely throw out verbal bombshells to retaliate or to provoke. Pick a topic – climate change, gun rights, gay rights, abortion, immigration or race. There are many more, and every topic has a political or religious hot button that guarantees heated debate based on deeply held convictions.
Words have power. Look no further than the comment sections of political blogs and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Arguments arise as the debates between left and right become more heated. When civil discourse has run its course, finger pointing, name calling and the use of some truly repugnant language prevails. When you have been labeled, what is your reaction? It is so easy to get angry, and that is how we have all been duped.
Mass media works the magic of legerdemain, the trick that focuses our attention on one hand while the other hand tricks us. L. Frank Baum wrote of this trick in The Wizard of Oz when the wizard himself cautioned, ‘Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.’ In fiction, Dorothy worked out the wizard’s trickery. In the real world, most of us remain unaware of the trickery being foisted upon us.
Our war of words is a distraction. Every form of entertainment is a distraction – movies, video games, spectator sports. Everything that we as Americans get rabid about focuses our attention on something other than what is taking place in the real world. What is taking place? Nothing less than the fleecing of the United States of America. The big money in our country has outright purchased our government. Laws are passed and court decisions are made to aid the wealthiest among us such that their treasure is protected. Tax laws and campaign contribution laws are well-established to ensure the long-term safety of their wealth.
As long as we are occupied rooting for the home team, arguing politics, pointing fingers and name calling, the ‘wizards of wealth’ are working their magic. It is a simple tactic called class warfare, and it is working marvelously. 2010 data suggest greater income concentration at the top of the income scale than at any time since 1928. Between 1979 and 2007, average after-tax incomes for the top 1 percent rose by 281 percent after adjusting for inflation — an increase in income of $973,100 per household — compared to increases of 25 percent ($11,200 per household) for the middle fifth of households and 16 percent ($2,400 per household) for the bottom fifth. In 2007 the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country’s wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15%.¹
There is always a place for discourse in a free country, and I encourage the free exchange of ideas. I would also urge you to consider that the next time you are given to rant from the left or the right, you are playing a key role in the duping of America.
¹Congressional Budget Office figures
Applecore Too 
Reblogged this on Applecore and commented:
I created a new blog, Applecore Too, where I will post stories about things other than my travel experiences. This is the first post on my new site. It is an opinion piece about the United States based on my perspective having traveled on four continents over the past three years. Check it out and let me know what you think.
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Excellent post – thoughtful and well-written. I look forward to reading more, as your travels have given you many different perspectives from which to draw. Keep up the good work!
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Thank you, Marilyn. I still have more to say after having gained a larger more global perspective. I appreciate your readership. – Mike
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Good idea and interesting post Mike; keep em coming.
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Thanks, Tom. 🙂 Mike
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It is a great idea to express how we have made many mistakes, labeling and using ‘judgments’ before really getting to know people.
But, one by one, each person meeting another, individually can find a slow way to friendship, bridging the distance between left and right points of view, cultures, countries and religions. It is how you showed us, through each of your six-month trips, that you made friends that may or may not last forever, but you showed them we were not so bad, either.
My mother talked about ‘Ugly Americans,’ and told us how Europeans felt about us, when she traveled in the early fifties. She helped us to understand that we portrayed ourselves like our country was the best, instead of embracing differences. It is interesting that you have captured many of our family’s values in this post, Mike!
I like the way you said, you wish to “encourage free exchange of thoughts and ideas.” Also, not to put it in terms of politics, which can be from the left point of view or the right view point. The people that really care and understand, you will create a great place for discourse and interaction here, Mike! Take care, Robin
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Robin, I always look forward to your reactions and comments to my articles. I especially appreciate how inclusive you are toward others regardless of their religious or political views. I try to do that, too, but I do have opinions and it is not always easy to let things slide, especially if someone makes comments that offend me. I guess the thing I like about posting opinions on my blog is that I can control the atmosphere and block the stuff that merely promotes ideology rather than well-articulated opinions. And for that reason, your comments are always appreciated! 🙂 – Mike
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Powerful words Mike! I believe wholeheartedly that words have amazing power. Buddhism takes the power of words so seriously that “Right Speech” is one of the basic teachings of this tradition. By the way, I guess I’m back to blogging a bit here – heh, heh. 🙂
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This article was stewing inside me the last time we spoke. This is how it finally came out. Thank you for adding your insight and wisdom to the exchange. I always appreciate what you bring to the table. 😉 – Mike
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Hi Mike,
Somehow I missed your original posting. Thanks for drawing attention to this. This is perhaps THE central discussion of our time – perhaps of all time.
Nicely written. I am reminded of the work of Edward Bernays in the longer-term, macro sense and also of Frank Luntz and George Lakoff.
Bernays is widely regarded as the father of modern propaganda (Public Relations) and was responsible for a number of popular behaviors of the American Public.
Frank Luntz systematically determines the most effective, specific language to be used by most high profile spokespersons on the right so as to be the most persuasive among those who have allegiance to the right wing.
George Lakoff studies people like Luntz and notes his techniques and methodologies as well as his dissemination tools and the fervor with which the right pays close attention to his pronouncements. Luntz has repeatedly demonstrated that his selection of words works VERY effectively and deviation from the specifics of his phrases are of far lessened persuasive power.
I once read a book entitled “News from Nowhere” which makes the point that there it is not possible to offer a truly OBJECTIVE point of view – those are contradictory terms. Everything said ALWAYS presumes a particular point of view or observation point (mindset). One who claims to be completely unbiased, while well-meaning, is unfortunately, sadly misguided as to that misunderstanding.
My wife, normally a keenly bright woman, recently had a conversation with a woman who was attempting to explain a situation involving a pet cat that she had encountered, but my wife was having a great deal of trouble understanding the details being offered. Again and again, my wife apologized and blamed her difficulty on not having gotten enough sleep the night before. Then, after quite some time, even after the woman had been asked to repeat herself several times, the understanding still hadn’t significantly improved, my wife realized the problem. The woman to whom she was speaking had a particularly crisp British accent – one my wife had learned in childhood – that signaled the presence of a well reasoned and superior intellect and my wife had given this woman an especially generous amount of credit in her ability to present a cogent representation of events. But once my wife realized her own prejudice, it became obvious to her that the story being presented was incredibly disjointed, disorganized, and probably best characterized with the description, “incoherent.”
We both appreciated this kind of prejudice and we agreed that the opposite would likely have been true had the woman presented with an accent that was not that of a formal sounding British, but one that seemed to have originated in the deep south of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, or thereabouts and would likely have resulted in exactly the opposite form of a similar prejudice – wherein upon recognizing it, substantial hurdles are instantly erected which become necessary for the speaker to overcome in order to establish the presence of an actual intelligence. Sad it is that I am guilty of this, yet it just happens to be just one prejudice I harbor of which I am aware. It is frightening to notice something like this, since it surely is the harbinger of many more that remain below my own perceptual radar.
It is not only the words we select, but also many other things that surround those words which color the presentation. Was the speaker wearing a suit and tie, a lab coat, a uniform, religious garb, etc? What is the surrounding? Are there American Flags or a “Flag lapel pin” present? is there some sort of symbol or insignia involved? Is the speaker at a podium or in front of a barrage of microphones? Are photographers present? Is the person smiling or wearing a frown? MANY, MANY other things come to play to color the reception of what is being communicated.
Anyway, Thanks very much for the words. They are clear and important.
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Thank you, Rick, for adding significantly to the substance of my article. It is true that we all enter into interpersonal communication with a set of biases, some of which we are not consciously aware exist.
The problem with broadcast and printed media is the absence of opportunities to interact (short of throwing nerf bricks at the television). At least with printed media we can write back. I often read the letters to editors to gauge the bias of the writers.
I like social media for the opportunity to respond more rapidly. Unfortunately, many people hide behind aliases in order to hurl insults and verbal bombshells, thus relegating so many comments to the trash bin of incivility.
I hope more people will do the research and fact checking as you have done in order to form opinions of their own based on their convictions rather than simply conforming to the mind-controlling mass media messaging foisted on a complacent public. Our world is too complex and potentially corrupt to leave the messaging to the propaganda machines.
Thanks again for your illustrative comments. – Mike
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