American Yahoos Politics of Shame
The typical American has somehow become the worse sort of yahoo who will believe just about anything if only it is repeated enough times and everyone in his fellow group of yahoos is saying it. The dumbing down of America has given the Karl Roves of the world all the material that they need to create a politics of shame that presently engulf the American presidential campaign.
The story in today’s Washingington Post sadly but accurately documents the yahoo factor at work in Flag City, USA, Findlay, Ohio. From the Internet, in their grocery stores, at their neighbor’s house, at their auto shop, Findley resident yahoos have absorbed a version of the Democratic Obama candidate’s background, one that is entirely false: Barack Obama, born in Africa, is a possibly gay Muslim racist who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Many of the vicious rumors originated on the Internet. Then they are passed from neighbor to neighbor and take on a life of their own. All of the good America yahoos start to think that since so many of their “smart” friends are saying it that it must be true. For unethical and immoral political operators like Karl Rove it is a fertile field in which to spread misinformation.
The sad thing about these yahoos, and there are plenty of them all across America, is that they want to believe and to live in a world that is no longer there. “People in Findlay are kind of funny about change,” said Republican Mayor Pete Sehnert, a retired police officer who ran for the office on a whim last year. “They always want things the way they were, and any kind of development is always viewed as making things worse, a bad thing.”
When people in Findley started hearing rumors about Obama — who looked different from other politicians and often talked about change — they easily believed the nasty stories about an outsider. Especially since they were being spread by fellow yahoos, people that they know and trust.
To let the good people of Findley know that this story is not just about them I’ll relate a story about my 85 year old mother. I was recently visiting with my mother. We were watching one of her favorite TV programs together when an Obama for president ad appeared. My mother turned to me and said “you know Obama is a Muslin” in a matter of fact voice. I said that absolutely is not true and asked her where she had heard that lie. She replied, “One of my friends send me an email. Actually a good many of my friends have been emailing me with the truth about Obama. I know these people. They wouldn’t send me anything that is not true.”
When I said once again that her friends had their facts wrong she become irritated, not with her friends but with me. “But they are good smart people, I’m sure they would not send emails to me unless it was true.”
Yes, in America even your own mother can easily be a yahoo. There are many people whose research on an issue goes no deeper than an email received from a “friend”. The Obama campaign understands the power of the Internet very well. They have raised many millions of Dollars from a grass roots organization largely developed by the smart use of the Internet.
Now the question is if they will be able to effectively battle the onslaught of vicious false rumors about Obama being spread like wildfire over the Internet? The battle for the hearts, minds, and votes of the American yahoos is on. The politics of shame has found a new powerful operating environment in the Internet. The political swift boaters have never had it so good. The Obama people will have their hands full in fighting an Internet politics of shame campaign.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
