Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Didn't we settle this already?

I was at the grocery store this afternoon and saw this staring at me in the checkout line...

I consider myself reasonably well-educated and informed, but I realize that there are people out there who, sad to say, will see this and actually believe that this is a real news story. And while I am as much an advocate of the free press as anyone, and more so than many people, I have to wonder if there shouldn't be some means of prosecuting the publishers and writers who print crap like this that is based on deliberate and blatant lies, that takes advantage of the ignorance of a population that has been cynically misled and used by corporate elites like the Koch brothers, to push their right-wing agenda under the guise of the allegedly "populist" tea party movement.

I know that the first impulse for many people is to ridicule anyone who is ignorant enough to purchase and believe this kind of story. To me, the people who are truly worthy of our ridicule and our contempt is those who publish these magazines, who encourage and capitalize on the ignorance of these readers, rather than using their platform as publishers and writers to educate and enlighten the public. There are plenty of real scandals going on in government and business that are much more shocking and important than the phony allegations of a handful of right-wing conspiracy theorists.

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