Before we proceed
further we need to define the word: "Propaganda."
According to WikiPedia.com - Propaganda is a type
of message aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of
people. Often, instead of impartially providing information,
propaganda can be deliberately misleading, or use fallacies,
which, while sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid.
Propaganda techniques include -patriotic flag-waving,
glittering generalities, intentional vagueness, over simplification
of complex issues,
rationalization, introducing unrelated red herring issues, using appealing,
simple slogans, stereotyping, testimonials from authority figures or celebrities,
unstated assumptions, and encouraging readers or viewers to "jump on the
bandwagon" of a particular ideology.
With that in mind, please read on.
Recently, Lou Dobbs, the anchor and managing editor of CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," held
another of his so-called "Broken Borders" town hall meetings, in Hazleton,
Pennsylvania.
As expected, Mr. Dobbs hosted a deviously choreographed meeting, in which
he hand picked a "powerful" lineup of "anti-immigrant
professionals," as participants, armed with distorted "economic estimates" and
monstrous fabrications, as opposed to a pittance of representation from the
pro-immigration lobby - a few Hispanic Americans, who, even though well-meaning,
could hardly express themselves with a level of sophistication matching that
of Lou's hired right-wing "distortionists."
To ensure that the pro-immigrant participants never fully put their points
across, Mr. Dobbs, on numerous occasions, cleverly cut to commercials every
time a strong point was raised. This meeting, as all the others Lou has conducted,
including his daily TV show(s), was tedious and loaded with malicious distortions
and un-substantiated claims against immigrants.
"We are protecting English!," screamed Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta. "I am doing
what my community elected me to do! The people that are in this country illegally
are draining the resources and draining budgets that are meant to be used to
provide services for those that are here legally and paying taxes." Mr. Barlettadid
not bother to mention the fact that a big chunk of these "illegal immigrants" are
paying taxes like everybody else and are also contributing to a social security
system [and Medicare Insurance] from which they will never benefit, as long as
they stay "illegal."
One hired "expert" from the Heritage Foundation, an organization that spends
much of its money pushing "right-wing" ideas in the media, proclaimed to the
gathering that legalizing 12 million "illegal immigrants" would bankrupt the
United States. Now, this is an outright lie, and by the definition above, also
propaganda. This is a deliberate distortion by an "authority figure," selected,
sanctioned and assigned by the "Minister" himself, Dr. Lou Dobbs.
The United States government has spent almost five hundred billion dollars
to date, at the rate of approximately 6 billion dollars a week this year, fighting
the war in Iraq, And guess what, the most powerful economy in the world is
getting even better, and actually thriving.
The so called expert, from right-wing Heritage Foundation, never bothered
to illustrate how the legalization of 12 million immigrants is going to bankrupt
America; instead, he resorted to spouting misleading figures and using fallacies,
with which to convince the audience that his lies and distortions are factual.
"Immigrants are leaving my town in the middle of the night!," gloated Barletta,
amid wild cheers by a large section of the crowd, most likely a bunch of blood
thirsty right-wingers, choking with racism and bigotry. [Note:
The city of Hazleton is one of a couple dozen in the United States to enact racist
anti-immigrant ordinances.]
There was one comical moment when a thoroughly mis-informed (probably paid
by Lou Dobbs) 82 year old black man, resplendently bedecked with military medals,
jumped onto the stage claiming that immigrants have "stolen jobs" from his
two sons in New Jersey.
For a black man, who, in his early life, must have experienced
racial intolerance at its worst, to stoop so low, is hypocritical
and very disturbing, indeed.
The causes of Black America's prolonged economic hit are not rooted in immigrants.
Bill Fletcher, Jr., a long-time labor and international activist, and writer
clarifies: "The emotional and hallucinatory appeal of attacking immigrants
as a means of saving the Black worker is not only morally bankrupt, but it
is also politically bankrupt." Read his BC Column: "Anti
Immigrant In Black Face," for more information.
To underscore the fact that Lou Dobbs is a man obsessed with the Mexican
border and illegal immigration, I counted the words "illegal" and "alien" at least
30 times in his introductory speech, during which his approximation of the
number of "undocumented immigrants" rose dramatically from 12 million to a "certain" 20+
million. 
Lou Dobbs has a penchant for using code words like "illegal aliens," "comprehensive
amnesty," "invasion," "immigrant criminals," "illegal immigrant drug dealers," "immigrant
gang members" and "disease carriers," etc., sometimes in such irrational combinations
and permutations, that even search engine algorithms - which do not "think" yet
- could easily detect as "racist 'spamdexing'," if posted on a web-page, as
being code messages to his fellow bigots and hate mongers, urging them to take
up "arms" against the "filthy cultural" invaders.
Again and again, Lou Dobbs asserted that illegal aliens are sending back
to Mexico more than $20 billion in remittances per year, without equally
mentioning
the multi-billions of profit dollars US companies operating abroad repatriate
back home by exploiting cheap labor in Mexico, and the rest of the world for
that matter, thus enabling U.S. consumers to purchase products and services
at super-low prices.
Also, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau
of Labor Statistics, the U.S unemployment rate stands at 4.5% (Apr. 2007
Estimates), a record low in recent years, rivalling the Clinton "prosperity
years," during which unemployment dropped from 7.5% to 4%.
Therefore it makes me wonder what jobs immigrants are stealing from Americans.
Although it must not be construed to constitute a valid reason to gate-crash
the borders of the United States, I must note that this country is what it
is - an economic giant - to a large extent because of years of aggressive economic
exploitation and extortion of the rest of the world, through it's huge and
greedy multi-national companies, and the tactical use of arm twisting tools
like the World
Bank, the IMF (International Monetary Fund), among many others.
Practically every third world nation has been touched by western
imperialism in one way or another; western governments have colluded
with corrupt third
world leaders to exploit natural resources, and have looked the other way,
whenever these thieving leaders have pocketed profits, and "invested" the money
back into western banks, rendering their citizens poor and helpless.
Perhaps, before any anti-immigrant zealot begins spewing empty rhetoric,
he/she should read Walter Rodney's book (1973): How
Europe Underdeveloped Africa, in which Rodney convincingly argues that
much of the "Third World" is a product of European Imperialism in the 19th
and 20th centuries. Rodney argues forcefully about the "cultural" and "natural
resource" plunder of Africa, which continues to date, from West African oil,
to South African diamonds, to minerals like bauxite and copper, taken from
the interior countries like Congo.
The Europeans created arbitrary borders for their convenience, with utter
disregard for the indigenous people, their histories or past animosities;
the tumultuous
Middle East comes to mind. The violence in Rwanda can be squarely attributed
to the colonial divide and rule tactics of the
Germans and the Belgians.
Years of political repression, by Europeans on Africans, followed by awkward
and hurried departures, with little preparation or training of Africans for
the maintenance of the economic and political infrastructure, left many African
nations in chaos, yielding today's political unrest, economic uncertainty,
wide spread poverty and disease. The same applies to African-Americans in the
United States, which itself is a creation of Europe, and therefore all the
above refers.
[Note: Because of his principled stand for the down-trodden Africans in
Africa and the Diaspora, Walter Rodney was assassinated in 1980 in his
native country, Guyana.]
All the above are applicable to practically every country colonized by the
Europeans, principally Britain, the "soul brother" of the United States - the
current torch bearer of 21st century economic and cultural imperialism
- and are causes for the surge in migration from poor third world nations to
the so-called developed world.
First world greed, coupled with the inability of third world nations to govern
themselves effectively, and the need for cheap labor [skilled and unskilled]
in an aging first world population, are a combination of factors that will
always promote migration to developed nations. These excerpts from the book: If
You Love This Planet, by Helen Caldicott, gives a very clear picture about
how "predatory" some developed countries are to the third world. 
The war in Iraq is not primarily about the "fear of terrorism," but about economic
dominance - had their been no oil in the middle east, there would never have
been a war. The notion that: "We are fighting them in Iraq so that we don't
fight them here," is just a propagandist "chant," meant to provide cover for
what is really going on in Iraq - "Massive Theft," and "Wanton Killing."
If western countries want to reduce migration from the third world, they
must make a genuine effort to "reverse" the effects of colonialism, and to
assist these nations to be self-sufficient. Over the years, every wave of
immigration
into the United States has faced fear and hostility, especially during times
of economic hardship, political turmoil, or war:
- In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese
Exclusion Act, one of America's first immigration laws,
to keep out all people of Chinese origin.
- During the "Red
Scare" of the 1920's, thousands of foreign-born people
suspected of political radicalism were arrested and brutalized;
many were deported without a hearing.
- In 1942, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were interned
in camps until the end of World War II, prompting the
following: In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed
legislation which apologized for the internment on behalf
of the U.S. government. The legislation stated that government
actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and
a failure of political leadership," and beginning in 1990,
the government paid reparations to surviving internees.
- Today, immigrants, especially those of
Latino descent, are being lambasted and labeled as thieves,
crooks and illegal "disease
carriers."
Even more disturbing is that some black
Americans have joined the bandwagon of "Dixie White America" by
incessantly using fear and misinformation, which instigates
hate crimes against immigrants,
especially Latinos.
The "immigrant" is almost as frightened as was the "Negro" during the peak
years of racial segregation in America. Police raids are sending ripples of
fear throughout immigrant communities all over the United States. Vigilantism
by racist groups like the "Minutemen," is on the rise. Families are being torn
apart haphazardly, and futures are being destroyed indiscriminately.
This anti-immigrant campaign is very similar to that conducted against Jews
by Dr.
Joseph Goebbels — "Minister for Public Enlightenment & Propaganda in Nazi
Germany."
Consider the following scenarios:
1. In Nazi Germany, Jews were scapegoated as the source of Germany's
economic woes. In the United States, Lou Dobbs has insinuated repeatedly
that the economic troubles of the "middle class" is a direct result of U.S.
jobs being exported overseas and by extension - immigrants are either stealing
jobs from the "middle class" directly and/or driving down wages. There is
some truth in the "wage" element of this assertion, but without bothering
to explain the "mechanics" of this claim, Lou's over simplification results
in "uninformed" contempt by his viewers, of immigrants in general.
2. In Nazi Germany, audiences were continually reminded of the struggle
of the Nazi Party and Germany against foreign enemies and internal enemies,
especially Jews. In the present United States, Lou Dobbs always reminds his
audience, that millions of foreigners and criminal illegal immigrants are
running rampant in the United States, quite contrary to official statistics.
He often invites "white-supremacists" and
demagogue politicians from racially intolerant constituencies, as analysts
and commentators on his shows, while denouncing civil rights groups such
as the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center as "despicable" and "reprehensible." The
few pro-immigrant guests invited to Mr. Dobbs' shows are routinely scolded
and lambasted for their stance. To stir the pot further, Mr. Dobbs ends his
TV shows with un-scientific impromptu polls that are always skewed and probably
doctored and maliciously presented as the view of the majority.
3. Propagandists lauded Germany as the sole defender of
what they called "Western European culture" against the "Bolshevist hordes (Russians)." In
this town hall meeting and as in previous ones, the issue of English as an
official language came up - the fear that English will be "replaced," by
the Spanish language [...a subliminal insinuation that the white Anglo-Saxon
culture in being contaminated] has been used repeatedly by Lou Dobbs and
co., to drive fear up the spines of Americans.
4. Jews in Nazi Germany were branded as disease carriers, contaminants
of the pure German race. Recently, Lou Dobbs, despite being confronted with
undisputed evidence to the contrary, maintained his claim that there have
been 7,000
new cases of leprosy in the U.S. in recent years, attributing the increase
to "unscreened illegal immigrants." Such irresponsible utterances in mainstream
media, only help to embolden hate groups, who gather often to keep the "Cradle
of the Confederacy" safe from leprosy, pedophiles, Spanish language
and rampant godlessness.
In 2007, history is repeating itself.
Lou Dobbs, together with a swarm of "Hyena" right-wing
pundits, and buoyed by evil politicians like Congressman
Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Duncan Hunter of California, are playing a
major role in fomenting anti-immigrant hysteria - stroking the fires of racist
extremism and fueling a dramatic growth in hate groups.
This YouTube.com
video illustrates how inflammatory speech on public airwaves fosters hate
and intolerance.
In the 1920's, Nazi Scientists had just invented the "Magneto phone," the
first tape recorder, which meant that their propaganda could be time-delayed,
enabling
them to tailor their message of hate for local consumption. 87 years later,
Lou Dobbs has access to CNN's state of art propaganda equipment; I bet Dr.
Goebbels is turning in his grave, with admiration.
As far as I am concerned, any person who has lived in the United States for
several years, has participated fully in the system, and has no felonious mis-deeds,
belongs here and ought to be treated with some respect. The firm stand, "depot
them all." "We are a nation of laws" is just a smokescreen for "we wish this
good old USA was 100% lily white." ...a convenient tool for extortion. It is
not only inhuman but bigoted to the core.
The vicious and racist history of this country refers.
The U.S. Constitution does not give foreigners the right to enter the U.S,
but once here, it protects them from discrimination based on race and national
origin and from arbitrary treatment by the government.
Immigrants work and pay taxes; legal immigrants are subject to
the military draft. Many immigrants have lived in this country
for decades, married U.S.
citizens, and raised their U.S.-citizen children. Laws that punish them, violate
their fundamental right to fair and equal treatment.
By "stroking and massaging" the dormant "hate genes" residing within the "nativists," Lou
Dobbs and other right-wing demagogues are making the process of legislating
the immigration issue immensely torturous, if not impossible.
It is therefore my opinion that Lou Dobbs is a tactical propagandist worse
than Dr.
Joseph Goebbels, the "Minister for Public Enlightenment & Propaganda in
Nazi Germany."
According to Dr.
Sam Vaknin, to qualify as evil, a person (Moral Agent) must meet these
requirements:
- That he can and does consciously choose between the (morally)
right and wrong and constantly and consistently prefers the
latter;
- That he acts on his choice irrespective of the consequences
to himself and to others.
Does Lou Dobbs meet these requirements? Your guess is as good as
mine!!
That Lou Dobb's wife of 25 years is Mexican-American is just incredibly dumbfounding. Mexican
blood runs in the veins of his daughters, Hillary and Heather, yet he never
mentions this on his anti-immigration CNN shows. Is it a case of "whip the damn
Mexicans with all I got," 24/7 - on TV and in bed? [see Leslie Stahl video
interview captioned below]
The two Lous - Dobbs and Barletta, are just two of the many "America is for us
and only us" white bigots who will stop at nothing short of mass deportation
of
everyone who doesn't look like them. When they fail to mention the "positives" and
instead inflame and distort the "negatives," they are criminally inciting
a largely "TV Educated" population who is totally incapable of a high level
of information synthesis. They take in the lies and distortions hook, line
and sinker!
In a country where racism is held in check by a cordon of laws (which are not
always uniformly and fairly applied), I submit that this "distortionist" adventure
in which CNN and Lou Dobbs are engaged, is not only dangerous but thoroughly
unfair.
The "town hall" gathering, as far as I am concerned, was a "sanctioned hate meeting" -
cleverly woven into the fabric of mainstream media for profit and to promote
white supremacy - a trend perfected by Fox News, the "UnFair
and Totally UnBalanced" garbage news channel.
How about getting them out of the woodwork and finding out who is who? Scaring
them will drive them further underground, making it harder to find and track
the "imaginary terrorists" you fear so much!
There is a need to look at this issue intelligently, humanely
and with fairness; no one wants to be hit by Osama Bin Laden
and his cohorts. Secure the borders
[build a 60ft wall if that's what pleases you], but let all those who have
been living in the shadows come out and be counted. You can
bet the criminal ones
will continue hiding, but the hard working immigrants who have roots in this
country
must be allowed to fulfill their dreams.
America is a nation of immigrants. Obviously, the flow of immigrants must
be controlled and regulated, but we must not allow the issue to be hijacked
and
used to transport
the racist agenda of the "propagandist extortionists" like Lou Dobbs and
the hateful,
right-wing political demagogues and hysterical "Hyena" bigots.
The United States Senate has taken a bold first step, and I applaud them.
Hopefully a reasoned and lasting comprehensive solution will be reached in
due course. James Opiko writes for AfroArticles.com and PoliticalArticles.NET. Click
here to contact Mr. Opiko.
References:
- Just as Governor Wilson's anti-immigrant policies turned California into
the bluest of Blue States, the angry, racist and xenophobic rhetoric emanating
from the Republican right is turning the fastest-growing voting bloc in America
against the GOP -- Writes Eleanor
Clift.
- Small sample of the ugly
and hateful emails sent to BlueLatinos.org after the "Lou Dobbs Tonight" May
6, 2005 interview of Jose Quinonez.
- Ike
Ridley on Racism -- Racism is not hatred as we have been led to believe
. . . intolerance, bigotry and brutality are only symptoms; the real disease
is fear.
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