Re: who ORCHESTRATED the well-timed Wright-wing attack on Obama?! KAST OF STRING

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Tom Fairlie [tfairlie () frontiernet net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 11:12 PM
To: David Farber; edyson () edventure com
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    who ORCHESTRATED the well-timed Wright-wing attack on Obama?!

Shame on you Esther for feeding our palpable public apathy
(even unintentionally :-) by taking a current controversy, highlighting
two opposite opinions that are both plausible and conspiratorial,
and then dismissing the whole thing as "cynical" before any
conclusions can be drawn. (Not that any of us outsiders could
reasonably draw a conclusion; at least not yet.)

This train of thought has prematurely ended every major scandal
in my lifetime by preying on our limited attention spans and our
natural avoidance of cognitive dissonanace. The plotters of the
Kennedy assassinations should have been caught in the 1960s.
Iran-contra should have put 10x as many people in jail (permanently
and without pardons and for a hell of a lot more than smuggling arms).
Whitewater was also just the tip of the iceberg once you understand
what was *really* going on in Arkansas during the 80s. Etc., etc.

I'm sick and tired (not of you, Esther) of the American culture's
reluctance to follow through on anything. Time and time again
we bitch and moan about how bad things are, and then none of
us (at least statistically) call our representatives, write a letter to
the editor, or vote our conscience. Every four years we simply
vote for our parties, the candidates with charisma, or, more often
than not, the lesser of two evils.

It's getting to be almost too late for us, since history is barely taught
any longer and the only way to see these corrupt threads is to trace
them back through the years, step back, and see the tapestry.
Ironically, it's the mainstream mass media that probably has the best
chance to save us. They're the only ones that reach enough of an
audience to change opinions and make a difference. Perhaps Craig
Newmark will step up to this challenge as he once predicted.

Tom Fairlie

And yes, I take most of my own advice, so I'm not totally hypocritical. ;-)

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
To: "ip" <ip () v2 listbox com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 6:12 PM
Subject: [IP] Re: who ORCHESTRATED the well-timed Wright-wing attack on
Obama?!



________________________________________
From: Esther Dyson [edyson () edventure com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 7:03 PM
To: David Farber; ip
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  who ORCHESTRATED the well-timed Wright-wing attack on
Obama?!

Actually,  the Republicans did it, knowing people would believe that
Obama did it per the reasoning below.

No, wait, the Obama people did it, knowing people would believe the
Republicans did it per the reasoning above.

What a sad, cynical time we live in!

Esther

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