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This appears in the comments section on a post in Ten Percent:
Me: Oil is a major cause. So is war profiteering. Bush’s militant, Christian fundamentalism plays a role too.
RickB: Yep all those, and I’d add imperialism. They all came together in a perfect storm, starting with a right wing judicial coup aided by a sibling’s state control and a father who used to be leader & headed the secret police and army for the empire. That’s how it would have been reported if it had happened in a developing nation!
Comments from people abroad often give us a perspective on things here that we really need.
The fog we live in because our media is propaganda oriented rather than news oriented needs to be lifted in as many ways as possible.
we are a rogue nation, whose standard of living, harboring of war criminals and rate of incarceration makes anyone who thinks we are the greatest country in the world a deluded fool, add in health care, exploitive labor practices and its pretty clear the coup in 2000 - we are only a psuedo democracy at best. We fail our people so miserably in favor of corporations who poison us without consequence hell ..thats fascist in my book. A rogue nation - pre emptive war torture..hey i don't get off on disliking america but objectively there is very little to be proud about..seriously.
How nice! (Now I'll get the same lawyers AP used and sue you!).
It's also down to how media report, it is very tribal- our wrongs are never as bad as their wrongs- and it's true outside perspectives are really useful, like Iranians view of the UK is really instructive because of our imperial meddling and major role in the coup to remove Mosadegh. They were quite friendly with the US (or so they thought) before that, but afterwards the US was perceived like the UK (although rising rather than falling in influence)- a despised imperial power.
I think 2 things would hugely alter things for the better- withdrawal and socialised medicine- and from those many more progressives changes would bloom. And from polling it appears the majority want those, so tell the ruling class to get fucked!
Mossadegh even (Kermit stole the 's')!
I could not agree more. If I want factual news I read BBC, Al Jazeera, and other international websites.
Hadn't thought of it that way before but it makes total sense!
You know what I just found out living in Ireland, that Sky News is owned by Murdoch, that explains the endless series of pro-Iraq occupation articles that air every time I switch over to the news channels. The media is a big problem in the west, the sad part is that it will probably not change for at least a few generations.