Don, fear is a weapon of the Masters of the Universe. In Australia, it is also used to manipulate but we are amateurs compared with the U.S. Our news was filled with the story of an Indonesian terrorist who planned to destroy Australia. Of course, such an objective is ridiculous but most people don’t think to question it!

Y’all just don’t understand the bubba flipping you off. He doesn’t want anybody, left/right/dem/rep, telling him what to do. If you ask him he will give you some pretty good thoughts about what he thinks is good for him and his family — if you patronize him he’ll just flip you off again. The psychotic monkey flipped you off out of contempt and nobody seemed to care.

But I don’t think this is because the average American is any smarter or dumber than any other world citizen. I think it is because we have almost completely handed-over the running of our country to corporate interests.

Corporations control most of the news coverage (either directly or indirectly through their advertising). Corporations control most of the election choices through direct and indirect contributions to candidates (we don’t have publicly-financed elections as in many other developed countries). Corporations quickly mobilize “astroturf” assemblies of the sheeple to lobby against their own economic self-interests any time legislators consider doing anything that might affect the Corporate bottom-line. It’s simply stunning how pervasively only corporately-defined alternatives have permeated U.S. culture and are taken for granted.

It doesn’t help that we have a Supreme Court that is sympathetic to granting corporations the same “rights” that individual citizens have. At face-value that might sound tolerable, but the reality that corporations hold the vast share of the wealth in this country — and thus the vast bulk of power — turns that into a very un-level playing field. It’s a joke.

I don’t know how we get out of this dilemma. It would help for Americans to wake up, think for themselves, and occasionally tell the corporations to get out of the way and go fuck themselves.

Instead, the corporations — Fox ‘News’ [sic] being a great example — keeps the sheeple in line by continually and shamelessly bludgeoning them with a message of fear, fear, and more fear. Which would be comical, except that it’s so damn effective.

How we, the thinkers (the ones who see how different the world could be) can change this situation is the billion dollar question. Perhaps when the masses are starving they might begin to think for themselves. But then it might be too late!

Although, I wouldn’t say so much that something’s loose in the US, than I’d say that something’s been concocted, nurtured, fostered and propagated. Good article though. Thanks.

David and all, this guy is the most typical American. Sure there are lots of variety and not everybody sports his demeanor. However, This guy is as American and prevalent as apple pie.

My 90 yr old neighbor listens to all those right wing radio shows and is full of fear. Talks about is Obama REALLY an Ammerikkan??? Storing food and keeping guns. There are scores of guys just like Wagelaborer described. God help us all when these guys lose their jobs (gulp).

That these slime could consider themselves ‘good’ is bad enough but that they also consider their country to be ‘good’ and believe that it should control the world is downright scary!

I just noticed a breaking news item about McChrystal demanding that more troops be sent to Afghanistan. I keep thinking about where all this is going to end!