A Perspective on Hypocrisy

[invisibleplanet]

What do you call someone who explodes a bomb and
kills innocent people?

A terrorist.

What do you call someone who drops a bomb from a
plane and kills
innocent people?

A brave American pilot.

What do you call it when a Palestinian uses violence
against the Jews who
have illegally occupied his land?

A terrorist attack.

What do you call it when an Israeli helicopter fires rockets at Palestinian
youths armed with stones?

Self-defence.

What do you call it when someone gives money to a
government official in
return for favors?

Bribery.

What do you call it when a large corporation gives
money to a
government official in return for favors?

A campaign contribution.

What do you call the form of government where a
small elite exploits and
intimidates the citizens?

A dictatorship.

What do you call the form of government where a
small elite exploits and intimidates the citizens, and the citizens can
choose every few years which part of the elite should occupy the government buildings?

A democracy.

What do you call it when someone carrying a gun
enters your house and steals
your valuable possessions?

An armed robbery.

What do you call it when a multinational corporation
supported by armed
forces enters your country and steals your valuable
possessions?

Free trade.

What do you call it when a group of people take the
law into their own hands
and kill people without a fair trial?

A lynching.

What do you call it when the US takes the law into
its own hands and kills
people without a fair trial?

Operation Enduring Freedom.

What do you call someone who steals from the rich
and gives to the poor?

Robin Hood.

What do you call someone who steals from the poor
and gives to the rich?

The US government.

What do you call a weapon that can kill thousands of
people?

A weapon of mass destruction.

What do you call a weapon that has killed 1.5 mllion Iraqis, including more than 500,000 children?

Sanctions.

What do you call an army that will fight for whoever
pays the most money?

Mercenaries.

What do you call an army in Afghanistan that will
fight for whoever pays the most money?

The Northern Alliance (or United Front).

What do you call an attack on the Pentagon, a
command and control centre in the US?

A cowardly attack on American freedom and democracy.

What do you call the destruction of an Afghan
village by US bombs?

An attack on a Taliban command and control center.

What do you call it when just over 3 thousand people
were killed in the September 11 attack on the US?

An atrocity.

What do you call it when nearly 5 million people
were killed in the Vietnam war?

A mistake.

What do you call it when very rich people exploit
poor people?

Greed and selfishness.

What do you call it when very rich countries exploit
poor countries?

Globalization.

[aleks]

...

[grobelaar]

Nice post...

A dictator is someone who has risen to the top of a political organisation by any means necessary...

A democracy is where you get to choose from two people who have risen to the top of a political organisation by any means necessary...

[marcel]

yeah, brought on the point, as always ip

[Ubik]

http://www.novenove.it/immagini/99_posse/photog99/chiapas2000/images/10_jpg.jpg

Your words remember me the zapatist movement....
Great!

[goinz]

you are so right

[invisibleplanet]

Originally posted by Ubik
Your words remember me the zapatist movement....
Great!

What is the ZAPATIST MOVEMENT, please Ubik?

[Lady E]

doesnt 'zapatist' mean shoe?

[gunjack]

zapatista baby

[mr franks]

the zapatist movement is an armed mexican liberation group, i dont know much more. they were in the news a couple of years back as they marched to mexico city as part of a protest, but i dont know what they stand for (apart from liberation!)....someone look on the fucking internet.....

[Ubik]

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/zapatista.html
http://www.ezln.org/

Chiapas is the richiest region of mexico , but the 85% of the population live without electricity, and they had to sell 2 kg of potatoes to buy a coca cola....
I' ve been there two times and that was the most important experience of my life......


http://www.yabasta.it/immagini/galleriagranati/images/34.jpg

[alex cortex]

and now guess who is my avatar...

[Ubik]

http://www.yabasta.it/immagini/galleriagranati/images/fer-zocalo.jpg

[Ubik]

http://chiapas.indymedia.org/
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/mexico/solid/zap_in_italy_se97.html

[deccard]

as far as i know the zapatistas are one of the parents of the antiglobalisation movement...

[emef]

well said invisibleplanet, sad but true

[pille'ocheoni]

very true.............lies everywhere...............and the biggest depressing part of the whole thing in america is the denial...............its like a virus.

[invisibleplanet]

http://www.paktribune.com/images/pictorial/2003/03/27cartoon0327.jpg

more graphic representation of political hypocrisy at work.

[pille'ocheoni]

planet are the protests still happening in england?

[invisibleplanet]

pille'
I hope that anti-war protesters will keep protesting every weekend whilst the war is waging. As soon as they let the pressuire off, the media will notice, and make a thing out of it.

[pille'ocheoni]

right on, we had a protest here in town, last saturday, and i attended. they hope to have it every saturday, but from the likes of ppl showing up and the police pressence, i think ppl felt very intimidated , by the lack of suport, from this bush lovin side of the country...........sad but hey.................at this point i feel sort of lost in the midst of war conversations. im not really sure what's right and wrong at this point and im really confused with the imformation ive heard so far.............initially im against any war, but i cant recommend a worthy solution either...........i just dont know at this point.

[invisibleplanet]

http://www.stopwar.org.uk

next uk protest 12 April 2003

[antipolis]

very strong/truthful post planet. I guess your words are not approved by the majority of the english public.

[invisibleplanet]

you guess right, antipolis
i have alot of flak for my words in other forums.
i am called a Saddham-sympathiser, a follower of Hitler's "Mein Kampf," a Paki-lover, told to fuck off out of England for being anti-war, called a Leftist Marxist Anti-Imperialist Communist Lesbian Loving Arab Lover....the worst insult was someone saying I reminded them of their ex-wife. I write under another name. :)

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet
Leftist Marxist Anti-Imperialist Communist Lesbian Loving Arab Lover....

Fantastic news, I've been striving to be one of these all my life, I'm really jealous...

Seriously though, they are saying that opinion polls have swung in favour of the war - do people believe this, do they think its propaganda - or do you think a few juicy news reports of battle in action has captured the voyeur in people???

[invisibleplanet]

I think it's all too scary for words...
some information I read in another forum (Overload), posted originally by edward_blake

03/18/03: PENTAGON THREATENS TO KILL INDEPENDENT

10th March, 2003
by Fintan Dunne, Editor
http://www.GuluFuture.com


The Pentagon has threatened to fire on the satellite uplink positions of independent journalists in Iraq, according to veteran BBC war correspondent, Kate Adie. In an interview with Irish radio, Ms. Adie said that questioned about the consequences of such potentially fatal actions, a senior Pentagon officer had said: "Who cares.. ..They've been warned."


According to Ms. Adie, who twelve years ago covered the last Gulf War, the Pentagon attitude is: "entirely hostile to the the free spread of information."

"I am enormously pessimistic of the chance of decent on-the-spot reporting, as the war occurs," she told Irish national broadcaster, Tom McGurk on the RTE1 Radio "Sunday Show."


Ms. Adie made the startling revelations during a discussion of media freedom issues in the likely upcoming war in Iraq. She also warned that the Pentagon is vetting journalists according to their stance on the war, and intends to take control of US journalists' satellite equipment --in order to control access to the airwaves.

Another guest on the show, war author Phillip Knightley, reported that the Pentagon has also threatened they: "may find it necessary to bomb areas in which war correspondents are attempting to report from the Iraqi side."

More at :
http://www.gulufuture.com/news/kate_adie030310.htm

[owain_k]

IP...spot on for above comments !

The things I am starting to hear emanating from the US administration's mouth piece are really starting to worry me, in one foul swoop they are succeeding in uniting the fundamentalist elements of the arab world which in my opinion will be used as a pretext for further "Liberation"....

It is quite plain to me that Bush and Rumsfeld are using tactics akin to that used by the proganda machine of Nazi Germany:

A, the creation of a common enemy
B, creating fear of this enemy
C, playing upon said fear to manipulate and control their own population to justify other ends and maintain their position of power (eg. invading iraq for economic interests)

As they say, truth is the first casualty of war and it seems the US adminsitration is so desperate to write its own version, now seemingly at the price of assasinating independent journalists.........
this is an absolute disgrace.

[invisibleplanet]

at least we know what the star wars program was intended for now...

and if the news re: freedom of speech frightens you, check this website:

http://www.newamericancentury.org

check the signatories on these letters....senior washington reporters, and adminstration members...policy makers...warmongers...

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm


know Tod Lindberg writes for the Washington Times, and this letter in particular makes me shudder.
..check the signatories again..

http://www.newamericancentury.org/Bushletter-040302.htm

thx go to ramar, from overloadmedia for bringing this to my
attention

[Yoss]

any of you want a free t-shirt?

http://www.referenciacero.com/foro/images/avatars/tee.jpg


those crazy americans... maybe the world is like a movie and, the USA is our Hero...

[invisibleplanet]

strains of gil scott-heron...

"this ain't really a life, ain't really a life, ain't really nothin' but a movie"

well, it's certainly often like badly scripted b-movie - but...the revolution will not be televised, brothers..the revolution will be LIVE (http://www.bikesummer.org/1999/notTelevisedLyrics.htm)

originally by Jonathan Steele in Damascus
Monday March 31, 2003
The Guardian

Read the small print: the US wants to privatise Iraq's oil

No one here believes this is a humanitarian war

In this highly politicised city where anger over the invasion of Iraq alternates with pride in the resistance, there is one sure way to lighten the mood. Suggest that George Bush and Tony Blair launched their war because of Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction. Hoots of derision all round. Whether they are Syrians or members of the huge Iraqi exile community, everyone here believes this is a war for oil. In nearby Jordan and across the Arab world the view is the same.
Some suggest a second motive - Washington's desire to strengthen Israel. Under one theory US hawks want to break Iraq into several statelets and then do the same with Saudi Arabia, to confirm the Zionist state as the region's superpower. Others cite Donald Rumsfeld's recent comments about Iran and Syria as proof that war on Iraq is designed to frighten its neighbours, who happen to be the leading radicals in the anti-Zionist camp.

Oil is the war aim on which all Arabs agree. While the Palestinian intifada is resistance to old-fashioned colonialism with its seizure and settlement of other people's land, they see the Iraqi intifada as popular defence against a more modern phenomenon. Washington does not need to settle Iraqi land, but it does want military bases and control of oil

full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,926081,00.html

[gunjack]

i am so sad today. this war is going to go on for quite a while i think. i hope i am wrong.

[invisibleplanet]

i think because this war is more than just a war to remove a tyrannical dictator, it will go on for a long time.

why i think this?

It is because it will take a long time for the exposure of the ills within the Bush Regime...it will take time to expose the vote rigging, and the hypocrisy of the American constitution. It will take time to expose the silent destruction of the Native American people. It will take time to prove that the Imperialist construct of the American Corporate Government is bad for both the people of America, and for the world. It will take time to ensure that everyone in America has free health care and access to medicines. It will take time to build homes for people who live in trailer parks. It will take time to improve the standards of education for the average person. It will take time for American's to realise they are being ruled by subliminal messages of fear and alienation. It will take time to collect the guns from the armed people of America. It will take time to remove the barabaric death penalty. It will take time for the world to pressurise the American Government to evolve.

It will take time for American People to realise that most of what the Ba'ath Party is accused of, can be levied at the American Govt.

[grobelaar]

But not as long as it'll take for the US to realise that you can't just invade another country, bomb their people, kill innocent families and expect them to welcome them with open arms - let alone turn around actually help them with the bombing and the killing...

When will they learn...

[invisibleplanet]

when hell freezes over?

[invisibleplanet]

Originally posted by gunjack
i too am feeling very high strung these days. i think the fact that we americans are looked so far down upon recently contributes to my own already hightened paranoia.

I don't know of anyone who is anti war, who is anti american. I know people who are anti-war, who are anti-american government, and they realise what a sticky situation the American People are in at present, with the Black Propaganda which is being controlled by the American Government, and fed to the American People.

As far as I know, no-one holds the American People people personally responsible for the actions of their government.

[Marolo]

thats a good point ip, because some people assume that people who are anti-war are anti-american or pro-saddam, which is bullshit of course

[invisibleplanet]

yes - but still, i think u may be the only one here who understood what i wrote there :|

[piscaries]

i sadly understand what you're saying as well. us gov't is pound for pound far worse than most any dictatorial governing system. our officials just got good at naming things in ways that people accept...

[grobelaar]

yes, I too would just like to agree with that and just point out to Americans on the board or anywhere else for that matter that I know way to wish my thoughts and opinions come across as a personal attack on Americans.

There is the sticky situation of our so called democratic states - which does philosophically hold us responsible for the actions of our govts - but as someone who doesn't vote and doesn't believe in democracy that democracy empowers people, it is somewhat ironic that the current US President may not in fact even be legally elected :-) BTW: I do have (very) small moments of smugness for not voting, 'specially after the all those lecturing, leftwing do-gooders acquantances who gave me loads of stick over how irresponsible my not voting was :-) heheh how do you feel now, seeing your legally elected PM running amok????

The sad fact is that our modern technological advantage gained through centuries of human endevour is going almost completely to waste - the time has come to start dismantling these pyramids of power, they are out of date, outmoded, unneeded and most alarmingly dangerously bad for the future of human race, the environment and the planet. Sadly the people sat atop these pyramids are none too keen to step down from their lofty positions and take their place amongst the rest of us humans.

[piscaries]

@grobs & IP

you guys have to be some of the most well spoken people i know.

[invisibleplanet]

Whilst i cannot agree with u that it is time to dismantle 'pyramids of power', due to the strength and long-standing workability of such a structure, and my belief that is it moreover the process of rising to that ben-ben of power which is corrupt, i am interested in this part of your paragraph, and wonder if u might expand on it further.

originally by grobs
The sad fact is that our modern technological advantage gained through centuries of human endevour is going almost completely to waste

[gunjack]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet

As far as I know, no-one holds the American People people personally responsible for the actions of their government.


yeah, ok logically it is true, but try traveling in as an american in europe and you will know this in your mind, but will feel something completely diferent. folks dont like americans these days. maybe some wont admit it as readily as others, but why do motherfuckers ask me stupid shit like "do most americans know where iraq is on the map?" and "do you know who chirac is?" ppl have this image of americans as being lazy, uneducated and violent. if you were me you would feel paranoid as well.

[invisibleplanet]

Originally posted by piscaries
@grobs & IP

you guys have to be some of the most well spoken people i know.

well spoken....and opinionated, i know :)
i find you well spoken too, cameron!

²gunjack...i think it hard to be a traveller from whichever country you come from. However, the more paranoid you feel, the less likely you will be your self with these strangers, and the more likely they are to pick up on your undercurrent of paranoia.

Perhaps u need a t-shirt with Anti-war slogans on as a visual ice breaker? U have my sympathies, but u also in the unusual position of having an opportunity whilst u are in contact with the european techno scene, to help to alter the stereotypical view which these europeans have formed.

Above all, if you feel uncomfortable, tell them. I'm sure you're honesty will be appreciated.

[Marolo]

The problem is that America as country on the whole is extremely self-centred. I’m from Brazil and more than once I have been asked stupid questions from Americans such as ‘Is Brazil a country in Africa?’ (no kidding) and ‘Do you have electricity there?’. All this from supposedly educated people. When I suggested to a friend’s mother recently that she should have a world atlas in the house she said, “what do I need that for?” Of course this is a generalisation, and not all Americans are ignorant but this image of ignorance and arrogance is the image that has gotten out to the world and that unfortunately sometimes leads to mindless bigotry.

[invisibleplanet]

in my opinion, it's not 'lack of knowledge' which i see as a problem, rather, it is the lack of knowledge about how to obtain more knowledge, which is a problem.

[pille'ocheoni]

please explain your post further. the one in the techno thread which you said you'd elabroate.

[phil]

yes, I too would just like to agree with that and just point out to Americans on the board or anywhere else for that matter that I know way to wish my thoughts and opinions come across as a personal attack on Americans.

yes..well spoken (ahem)

[theorie]

Originally posted by pille'ocheoni
very true.............lies everywhere...............and the biggest depressing part of the whole thing in america is the denial...............its like a virus.
among many probable contributing factors,not the least of which is america's continued relative plushiness and comfort, i think the most insidious vector of complacency is the evil alien TV in peoples homes! i am absolutely terrified of them. people turn them on as soon as they get home, only to be told what to do and what they want. sorry to rave on. (rave on!ha ha)

[phil]

i want to try some apple pie pussy....

[platinumray]

yeah, it's good to hear well articulated points of view. nice one guys.

i find the whole "with us or against us" philosophy just like the classic class room bully scenario. what the fuck? do they expect the world to support them because of they've found an enemy as backward as they are?

www.frontendsynthetics.com

[invisibleplanet]

Originally posted by pille'ocheoni
please explain your post further. the one in the techno thread which you said you'd elabroate.

my reply was this:

I don't know of anyone who is anti war, who is anti american. I know people who are anti-war, who are anti-american government, and they realise what a sticky situation the American People are in at present, with the Black Propaganda which is being controlled by the American Government, and fed to the American People.

As far as I know, no-one holds the American People people personally responsible for the actions of their government.

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet
Whilst i cannot agree with u that it is time to dismantle 'pyramids of power', due to the strength and long-standing workability of such a structure, and my belief that is it moreover the process of rising to that ben-ben of power which is corrupt, i am interested in this part of your paragraph, and wonder if u might expand on it further.



Hmmm, perhaps its more that our technological advantage is going to waste.

I've got a lot of thoughts in my head, and I'm never really good at proposing solutions to problems just imagining how things might be different.

I believe our technological advantage could be used to create a progressive anarchist society, hence my claim that the time has come to dismantled the pyramids of power - its not that they have become corrupt - but the very system encourages corruption - in fact the system may not work without corruption (not sure if that's true - I'm just hazarding a guess).

Any road up anarchist communities while often portrayed as visions of utopia they are also percieved to be stagnant from an advancement of human technology. I believe we have the technological capability to have an humanist/anarchist society without rulers and power structures that could still move forward and advance.

Examples are already coming forth - take the open source communities these are a case in-point, if you were to mould the whole of society around this sort of basis then maybe you could have something different, something where everyone is truly equal.

Any way these are very rough expansion of my thoughts, like I say a lot of my stuff is very conceptual - I don't propose how such a society could come about, whether such a society could come about but it would be interesting idea to explore. Read too much science fiction and not enough boring 'real' boring bollocks...

I had a similar idea a few years ago, after playing the computer game civilisation - I started by wondering what human society would be like if the landmasses had broken up into tiny islands prior to the evolution of human civilisation. I was poking about with ideas of anarchist societies and wondering if a technological advanced one was even possible - now I think it is...

here endeth the ramble... :-)