No wonder George W Bush was re-elected
I just saw this on Moby’s blog. CNN New Zealand did a vox pop on the streets of the USA asking questions like "where is the Berlin Wall?" and "What religion are Buddhist monks?" and asking them to point out places like Iran and North Korea on the map… It’s very funny and more than a bit scary, but makes you wonder about the information these people are being given about the world around them.
The US government & military are waging war abroad on behalf of their citizens without properly explaining to their people why, and communicating the repercussions (i.e. that nobody likes them or trusts them anymore). It’s often said that you can ask 10 people on the street why Iraq was invaded and 9 of them will say that it was to do with Iraq supporting Al-Qaeda, when in fact a fundamentalist Islam movement like Al-Qaeda would have nothing to do with a very secular regime like Iraq.
Over here every political and military action is scrutinised and dissected in the media on a nightly basis, so we’re pretty much on top of who’s doing what to whom in the world, but this obviously isn’t happening in the US. There’s a possibility that the heavily politicised media in the US (such as Fox News, which has a heavy republican bias) can mislead the populace into electing another leadership with a dangerous foreign policy agenda.
last night was really fun. | moby.com
By gary | 13. Oct 2007 | Humour, Politics | No Comments »