On Sun, 9 Aug 2009 14:41:48 -0500, "Ouroboros Rex" <its_at_casual.com
wrote:
flipper wrote:
On Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:40:18 -0700, Robert Baer
robertbaer_at_localnet.com> wrote:
flipper wrote:
On Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:55:05 -0700, Jim Thompson
To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon_at_My-Web-Site.com> wrote:
This will send a chill down your spine...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/
Big brother is watching... big time :-(
Might I suggest an E-mail flood ?:-)
...Jim Thompson
Even scarier is the Administration apparently thinks that hurling
accusations and simply repeating the same thing over and over,
while ignoring the arguments presented, is a 'rebuttal'.
Isn't Hitler who said that if a lie is told often enough that it
becomes believed / the truth?
That's commonly thought but Hitler's oft quoted commentary on the
subject, expressed in Mein Kampf, was the "Big Lie" theory.
"All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true in
itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of
credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more
easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than
consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of
their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the
small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little
matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It
would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths,
and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to
distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove
this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will
still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be
some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves
traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which
is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire
together in the art of lying."
-Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X
Interestingly enough, that quote is often taken out of context
because, it one looks at the preceding paragraph, he is actually
accusing 'the Jews and Marxists' of doing that.
"But it remained for the Jews, with their unqualified capacity for
falsehood, and their fighting comrades, the Marxists, to impute
responsibility for the downfall precisely to the man who alone had
shown a superhuman will and energy in his effort to prevent the
catastrophe which he had foreseen and to save the nation from that
hour of complete overthrow and shame. By placing responsibility for
the loss of the world war on the shoulders of Ludendorff they took
away the weapon of moral right from the only adversary dangerous
enough to be likely to succeed in bringing the betrayers of the
Fatherland to Justice."
That doesn't mean Hitler wasn't a liar, only that you can't 'prove'
it by using a quote where he's accusing the Jews and Marxists of
being liars.
Goebbels included both 'repetition' and 'big lie' in his theory but
there's no doubt of his intent.
""If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for
such time as the State can shield the people from the political,
economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes
vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress
dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by
extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
In this day where there is much discussion about 'the role of
government' it is interesting to note that Goebbles theory prizes
vitality of the State and he apparently concludes the State must, of
necessity, lie and, so, it is (or else it would not be) "vitally
important' for the State to repress truth and dissent.
A Constitutional democracy is diametrically opposite. It prizes the
vitality of the people and the 'State' comes and goes at their will.
Goebbels, again, on repetition
""The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success
unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it
must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over"
The modern left adds their own twist to the technique: regardless of
what they say accuse all dissenters of lying and, as Sen Hillary
Clinton demonstrated with Gen Petreus, do so before they even speak.
I often wax long and hard about logic and fallacies
Not as long as you do when using them. =)
You just demonstrated two of your, and the left's, favorites: hurling
an accusation with no evidence whatsoever
Sorry, straw man arguments have beginnings and ends. lol
