Sunday, November 02, 2008
Fox News: Gotta love those Guys!
The mega-important American election just hours away, genocide in the Congo, oil prices up, the economy in tatters, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan, and our major news network, Fox News, (the cable channel with the most regular listeners in the US) has this as their main world headline:
Gay Pledge for Kids
Card handed out to kindergartners asks them to sign agreement saying they'll help fight homophobia
# posted by vailian : 1:47 PM
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A fellow American once told me that Fox News was one of the few reliable sources of information as opposed to leftist-liberal propaganda (like the "New York Times," I suppose).
Not long after that, another American I know claimed that the ACLU was the "Anti-Christ."
Sounds unbelievable, but listen to some of those people at those Palin rallies.
But wait, before we rush to condemn Americans en masse, what about the Germans?
According to a poll of the "Foreign Policy" magazine, a quarter of the German population believes the U.S. government, not Al Qaeda, was behind the 9/11 attacks (http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9765).
And I was just reading in "Die Zeit" that school children in the former GDR do not know that it had been a dictatorship because their teachers and history textbooks gloss over this fact.
And then there's the ever recurring Holocaust denial....
Not long after that, another American I know claimed that the ACLU was the "Anti-Christ."
Sounds unbelievable, but listen to some of those people at those Palin rallies.
But wait, before we rush to condemn Americans en masse, what about the Germans?
According to a poll of the "Foreign Policy" magazine, a quarter of the German population believes the U.S. government, not Al Qaeda, was behind the 9/11 attacks (http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9765).
And I was just reading in "Die Zeit" that school children in the former GDR do not know that it had been a dictatorship because their teachers and history textbooks gloss over this fact.
And then there's the ever recurring Holocaust denial....
There is going to be a lot of ignorance in any country you can name. I just thought it indicative that that was their top headline (and when you read the full story, it turns out to be completely harmless).
The poll you mention looks a bit odd to me; it doesn't tally with the (albeit non-scientific) poll of my knowledge of German attitudes. The kids growing up in the former East Germany are very informed about the conditions that existed then-- their parents won't let them forget-- although the term "dictatorship" is not often used for the DDR, then or now. More often the term "one-party system" would be substituted.
The poll you mention looks a bit odd to me; it doesn't tally with the (albeit non-scientific) poll of my knowledge of German attitudes. The kids growing up in the former East Germany are very informed about the conditions that existed then-- their parents won't let them forget-- although the term "dictatorship" is not often used for the DDR, then or now. More often the term "one-party system" would be substituted.
That poll did surprise me, and I wonder about its accuracy.
Note, too, that in the comments section many presumable Americans agreed with Germans that 9/11 was the product of a U.S. government conspiracy. Kennedy assassination déjà vu.
My point--with which you seem to agree--is that there is considerable social and political grotesqueness on both sides of the Atlantic.
It does seem, though, that we Americans have an edge over the Europeans in this period of pre-election hysteria. Fox News, Hannity, Limbaugh, et al. are examples.
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Note, too, that in the comments section many presumable Americans agreed with Germans that 9/11 was the product of a U.S. government conspiracy. Kennedy assassination déjà vu.
My point--with which you seem to agree--is that there is considerable social and political grotesqueness on both sides of the Atlantic.
It does seem, though, that we Americans have an edge over the Europeans in this period of pre-election hysteria. Fox News, Hannity, Limbaugh, et al. are examples.
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