Those are the amazing words of Neil
Newhouse who does polls for the Romney campaign. Now there is a stand for you,
we’re just going to keep lying through our teeth because we can get away with
it. And so they do.
Obama removed the work requirement from
welfare law and will cut Medicare payments by $216 million. Fact checks say
this is a lie, but the Republicans keep on promoting it.
Anyone ever made their way through Hitler’s
Mein Kampf? If you did you may recall
the propaganda technique"the big lie", promoted in the book by Adlof Hitler in 1925. The idea
was to tell a lie that was so colossal that no one would think anyone would
have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Hitler’s big lie was to
blame the Jews for Germany’s loss of WWI.
Now I’m not saying that conservatives are
Nazis but they sure keep telling whoppers. So how do they get away with it?
Robert Reich tells of three methods.
Method one: tell the lies with ads
sponsored by big money so often, that the public forgets whether they are
accurate or not.
Method two: If the media reports the lies
as lies, then just discredit the media as a biased liberal elites who cannot be
trusted. Newt Gingrich worked that one well and it still works.
Method three: Get our own misinformation
outlets; can you spell FOX news, Rush Limbaugh etc.
We live in the world of double-speak.
So, I guess I just should just quit writing
my blog and sharing fact checker information. Nope.
Footnote to my previous article where I
thought the Republican Platform of 1968 would sit well with many Democrats. Now
it does contain the good old time tested words of conservatives, but its not
bad and the folk weren’t so rigid. If you want to wade through them good luck;
here are the references. Frankly, I’d just read the 1968 Republican one and
perhaps the Democratic one. The Current ones may break your computer with their
verbage.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25841 1968 Republican Platform
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29604
1968 Democratic Platform
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/28/read-the-full-republican-platform/ 2012 Republican Platform
http://www.democrats.org/about/party_platform
2012 Democratic Platform
Some of the fact checkers are themselves liars. Consider the famous "Factcheck.org"
ReplyDeleteThey said it is false that Al Gore said he invented the internet.
Gore in fact did say he created it, and use the word "create".
Any thesaurus will tell you that using the word 'invent' instead of 'create' in a paraphrasing is correct usage. I can't imagine why Factcheck would lie and twist meanings of words if not for some sort of political bias.
Their article on this also contains extensive wording on how the people who actually invented the Internet like Gore. Which is pointless and has nothing to do with looking at the statement.
No. Wrong. Words have actual meanings. You cannot replace a word as broad as 'create' with one as specific as 'invent' and claim to be telling the truth.
ReplyDeleteIt's like paraphrasing by putting the word 'doberman' in place of 'dog'. What if the dog in question was a toy poodle? You say, "No matter, I'm paraphrasing, it means the same thing."
No -- no it does NOT. You can replace a specific term with a broad one and only be badly misquoting, but if you replace a broad term with a specific one, then you've crossed the line into bold lying. Factcheck nailed this one squarely, and you know it.
Gore was actually instrumental in the internet's creation, even getting a 'webby' lifetime achievement award for this work. This is very VERY different from saying he 'invented' it.
If someone quoted Eisenhower as saying he 'created' the federal highway system you would nod your head in agreement as he did champion its funding and construction. But if someone quoted him as saying he invented it, you would say that would be a lie as it was being conceptualized as early as 1921.
But you say, "Wait, I thought 'create' and 'invent' were the same!" Nope, sorry. Words mean things.
Unfortunately if you find two words that are 'kind of close' in a thesaurus, some take that as license to play fast and loose with the facts. Sad but true.
1) in this context, create and invent mean the same thing.
Delete2) Gore had absolutely nothing to do with the creation/invention of the Internet. It existed before he got on the scene. He helped it grow after others created it.
____
So-called 'Factcheck' got this wrong.
As for Eisenhower, your analogy did not fit. Because others before Gore not only conceptualized the Internet, they created it too.
Gore lied: he took credit for acheivements others made.
No create and invent do NOT mean the same thing in this context, not by any stretch of the imagination.
ReplyDeleteHe was involved as early as the 1970s. Depends on what you mean by the generic term 'internet' I suppose. He was behind the development of the 'information superhighway' with Mosaic, so he's largely responsible for creating the world wide web, the 'internet' as people understand it today and what most people think when they hear the word 'internet' in common usage.
The analogy with Eisenhower fits perfectly: there were others on the scene before him as well: while the federal highway system as we know it came to be under Eisenhower, the fact is roads (predecessors to federal highways, just as ARPANET was predecessor to the World Wide Web) existed before 1956. Furthermore, plans for the highway system were drawn up in the 1920's.
Gore didn't create the ARPANET, of course, the technical predecessor to the internet, nor did he claim to. He didn't claim to invent Babbage's computer, the calculator or the abacus either, if you're trying to extend it that far back. He didn't take any credit that wasn't his as I read the internet history as it truly unfolded.
The real problem here is that conservatives simply cannot suffer a democrat to have actually accomplished anything meaningful. And when someone as accomplished as Gore does, they have to make up a fake quote to discredit it somehow. This is how the well-funded lying machine works.
"No create and invent do NOT mean the same thing in this context, not by any stretch of the imagination."
ReplyDeleteLets check (both from the first dictionary I find, dictionary.com)
"Create - to cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes."
"Invent - to originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance: to invent the telegraph."
Respectfully, the definitions of the words are different from what you are saying/implying.
"He was involved as early as the 1970s."
According to his quotation, he "created" the Internet while in Congress. A quick check shows he was in Congress from 1977 to 1993.
According to Truth or Fiction, "According to the encyclopedia Britannica, the Internet dates back to at least 1973 and in an article that broke the Gore story, Declan McCullagh of Wired News says the Net goes back as far as 1967 when Al gore was 19 years old."
Given the exact chronology of events (Internet creation vs Gore's terms in Congress) and Gore's statement to Wolf Blitzer, Gore was quite simply saying something that was not true at all.
As for the name Internet, it was in fact first used 3 years prior to Gore's arriving in Congress.
"Depends on what you mean by the generic term 'internet' I suppose."
Is that like what the meaning of is is? Either way, without the "Internet", it was there 7 or so years BEFORE Gore was in Congress. With the name "Internet", it was there 3 years BEFORE Gore was in Congress.
He was behind the development of the 'information superhighway' with Mosaic, so he's largely responsible for creating the world wide web"
Actually, Sir Tim Berners-Lee did this. It's quite well known.
".. the 'internet' as people understand it today and what most people think when they hear the word 'internet' in common usage."
The Web is, and was, just part of the Internet. As someone who used the Internet for years before the World Wide Web was created by a British man, I know the folly of confusing the Web with the Internet. It was folly then, and it is folly now.
"The analogy with Eisenhower fits perfectly: there were others on the scene before him as well"
No, it does not fit. Even if you acknowledge Gore was one of the creators (even though he wasn't, he said he "took the initiative" as a creator. That makes him leading edge, first, foremost. Eisenhower, as a latecover, did not 'take the initiative' to create this, just as Gore did not.
"....just as ARPANET was predecessor to the World Wide Web..."
Again, you are confusing the WWW with the Internet. Sorry, complete technical ignorance does not make any case at all.
"Gore didn't create the ARPANET, of course, the technical predecessor to the internet, nor did he claim to."
But he did claim to invent the Internet, which had already evolved from ARPANET in the early 1970s, long before he was elected to Congress.
"He didn't take any credit that wasn't his as I read the internet history as it truly unfolded."
No, he flat out lied and said that he created something during a part of his career that started after someone else actually created it.
And as someone who knows Internet history very well and knows the technical aspects of it, your confusing of the WWW with the Internet is a rank beginner's mistake.
"The real problem here is that conservatives simply cannot suffer a democrat to have actually accomplished anything meaningful."
ReplyDeleteNot at all. I give Gore credit where it is due, and any other Democrat the same. I am quite consistent about this. I have recently
"And when someone as accomplished as Gore does"
His real accomplishments do not justify his padding his resume and lying in a claim he did something he never did.
He is to be commended for helping fund later expansion of the Internet others had created. Commended a lot: credit where credit is due.
"they have to make up a fake quote to discredit it somehow. This is how the well-funded lying machine works."
Gore's own quotation is damning enough:
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
Note: He did not mention the World Wide Web. He did not use the vague catch-all "Internet as we know it'.
If you want to call Gore a well-funded lying machine, he is rich enough and deceitful enough, it is a fair charge.
Want to know the real problem? Someone on your side told a huge whopper. At least I try to condemn people for this regardless of what side they are on. Like when Ryan blamed the Janesville GM plant closing on Obama. He was lying (the chronology does NOT work, just as it shows Gore's claim as a lie also).
I deal with the fact that Ryan said something that wasn't true at all. It's a good idea to do the same with Gore taking credit for something others did while he was an undergrad.