Getting to the Facts

Most of our TV presentations are expressed as opinions pro and con presented so briefly that it is virtually impossible to follow them. Real reporting consists of in depth research rather than mere expressions of opinions often voiced as smears of opponents and of the real facts which are so critical to the workings of a democracy. Manifestly the U.S. is being divided up between the superrich and the rest of us struggling to survive -- sometimes even to stay alive without medical care.

As a retired professional philosopher "opinions" have always been suspect since the times of Socrates and Plato who warned us of them as alternatives to the truth -- often with vicious motives in the background intentionally designed to deceived people. Certainly we saw this game played to the hilt by the Nazis during WW2. Repeat a lie often enough and people begin to believe it. Their primary target was the Jews but they also despised non Aryans:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_race

"The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in European culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or sub race of the larger Caucasian race.[1]

"While originally meant simply as a neutral ethnic classification, it was later used for political racism in Nazi and neo-Nazi ideological form. It became a concept of scientific racism, and hence also in other currents such as occultism and white supremacism."

Needless to say we are still haunted by this racist categorization. It fits neatly with white fear of minorities in this country and is a carryover from the days of slavery and mistreatment of the natives who preceded our European colonization.

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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]