Most of us outside the borders of the USA know this, but nothing we do or say will probably have any kind of effect on the status quo: The American government is supported by an extremely efficient propaganda machine that ensures that the majority of its citizens will support it in its most barbaric of ventures. The big problem is that this propaganda machine consists primarily, contrarily to tradition, of “independent” media entities.
This article mentions some of the interesting manifestations of the American propaganda machine.
This one specifically irks me: “Editors across the US also worked hard to avoid the grisly images of war, especially scenes of dead Iraqi civilians and Americans, while Europeans saw uncensored horrific images.” I believe that if more Americans had seen the gruesome impact of their army on the innocent mothers, fathers and children of Iraq, they would be thinking differently at the moment.
A quote by John MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s magazine, wraps it up quite succinctly: “The concept of a self-governing US republic has been crippled by this propaganda,” MacArthur says. “The whole idea that we can govern ourselves and have an intelligent debate, free of cant, free of disinformation, I think it’s dead.”
He makes an extremely important point which I will rephrase and broaden: Democratic government only works if it is kept in check by an active and very critical media that is willing to show the voters absolutely anything and everything that it finds. It should be obvious that without more objective input, normal people can not make reasonable decisions and form objectively defensible opinions.