Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

I have absolutely no idea what I wanted to put in here today. I'm suffering from writer's block to a frustrating amount. It sucks. I'm hoping that if I just let my fingers do the work and stop worrying about what's going in here, it'll come out at least half-way decent.

My dad has gotten into politics. Every time I go over to his house these days, or call him up, the news is always on and every discussion that we have seems to end up revolving around why George W. Bush is a "bad thing." Having grown up with similar morals and appreciation for the world and society, I pretty much already believe that, but my opinion, in his eyes, is essentially uninformed.

You see, I don't watch the news. I can't watch the news. It isn't that I don't care about the world around me, though I tend not to be bothered with what most people consider "big news." It's just that I have an innate hatred for 24-hour news channels and the complete bull plop they pretend is objective news. If anyone starts a statement with "I saw on FOX News...", I pretty much ignore their opinion because these channels are so misguided and improperly advertised as news that pretty much everything they do is a disgrace to the idea of "news."

Because of that, my opinion tends to be uninformed (not that the news informs you). My opinions tend to dwell more towards the "what if" and not towards the reality of the situation. For instance, it is within the realm of thought that the Bush administration allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen. There was motivation there and a history of deceit at that kind of level. Example: Is it insane to believe that a president which lied to the country about weapons of mass destruction in order to justify a war with an innocent country would also manipulate the emotions of the country in possibly the grandest and most sure-fire way possible?

We don't want to believe that a president could commit such a horror, but the fact is, if I were in power and were so committed, I could do something like that, knowing full well the effect it would have. If I wanted to start a war, the only way to get it done in a world with United Nations and public support would be to become a victim. I know the effect a national tragedty can have on national unity and how easy it is use fear to manipulate others because I've seen the after-effects of Columbine - and worse yet, I could justify my actions for doing something like that. Why? Because I am capable of such a thing; I have little trouble believing someone else is as well.

However, I'm not saying that's what happened. Just that it is in the realm of possibility, and thus far, no evidence has been presented to contradict such a theory. In fact, with the presidency's habit of lying and misleading people on something like a war or presidential elections, it seems a little more likely that it did back in the day. That kind of concerns me, but I know very little about the 9/11 attack... on purpose.

You see, you cannot find out impartial information on the 9/11 attacks because after they happened, there was this national unity thing. Patriotism, empathy, and all sorts of emotional factors prevented any of the hard facts to be recorded at the time. We've made a hero out of an event, and just like we can't seperate the real Jesus from the fictional Jesus, we have only myths and legends left to understand what happened. It's not that the truth was covered up, just that at the time, nobody was looking for it in the first place.

In any case, my dad is into politics. He keeps bringing home all these documentaries which I watch. The subject of politics is actually interesting to me, though not the individuals involved. Thanks to my decision to start a short tenure of posting in the ED, I've had a first-hand involvement with public opinion, and I'm still aghast that something so factually incorrect has become "the public's truth." In fact, I just corrected someone no more than five minutes ago who suggest I tried to sue people over some stupid opinion. More than just looking at this event as a personal travesty, however, I find the subject fascinating in an objective light.

People intrigue me, but not individually. In large groups, they think and act differently than they do alone. Alone, they use reason and personal risk prevents them from doing anything too mean. Yet, in a group, they grow into this huge cloud of angry-stupid that gnaws on and eats everything in its path. It doesn't matter if it is politics, religion, patriotism, Web comics, Gaia, or whatever. Groups of people are dangerous... but there are ways to control them.

When I first started posting on public forums and writing freelance articles for a local newspaper, I didn't know that going from private figure to public figure is not easy and you'll get your butt kicked a few times in the process. But now that I know that, and know how to do it, I'm not interested in using that knowledge for my own gain. I once heard that "democrats win when people think." Scratching out that democrats part, I think that is a good motto. We all win, when people think.

I like to know these techniques for the same reason I like to know logical fallacies; because I want to know when I'm being manipulated myself. The second you learn what a straw man fallacy is and understand why it is a poor and manipulative arguement is the second you'll never find yourself trapped by it again. People make a big deal about defending yourself (check out the ED if you don't believe me), but only physically. You've got to protect yourself from mind games, too.

It is because I know these fallacies that I see so many flaws in the "news." I want to see debates on the issue, not hear John Kerry called a "flip-flop" without backing up that insult with any compelling or factually true evidence. These days, your hairstyle is more important than your message, and that bothers me. My hairstyle isn't particularly interesting.

I think that was why I was bothered by the whole article thing for nigh on a year. I wanted the facts to be presented and I wanted people to ask questions and come to conclusions based on those facts. But I was powerless to control even that. One guy says that I tried to sue him over some stupid opinion he had and here I sit, over a year later, and he's still singing that accusation. And I'm the bad guy if I correct him, just like Gore was the bad gy for wanting recounts that were constitutionally mandated anyway for a called election that was too close to call by any respectable source.

Why is the truth so powerless? Is it because the truth waits to be heard, while ignorant opinions are forced on you? The truth sits out there in a corner, shy and unassuming, waiting for someone in the crowd to point him out. Yet, that crowd's attention is being drawn by charletons and snake oil salesmen, using flashy graphics and snappy catch-phrases to pre-build your opinion before you even know you have one.

It sickens me. Everything about my tenure of free-lance article writing sickens me. Everything about politics sickens me. Everything about religion sickens me. I don't have the power to make things right. I don't have the power to make people think for themselves. Each time I write, I dream that one new person starts to question his or her reality. That they look out the window and see the world for the first time.

The sickest, most revolting part is... perhaps I could make a difference if I played the game. It wouldn't be too hard, now that I have an idea of how it works. But even if I win, I lose. Like I said, we all win when people think, and to me, it is meaningless to have a thousand people with the same answer as you that don't understand the question. As much as it sucks to have a thousand sheep curse my name, it would suck just as much to have ten thousand sheep praise it.