“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.� — Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister.
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One of the things that turned me against the Left (which is the political environment in which I was born and raised) was cognitive dissonance. I was no longer able to accept assertions that so radically contradicted facts known to me from my own experience. In other words, I figured out that my political party was lying to me, and I found that unforgivable.
The crack in the intellectual dyke for me was Israel. I know, because I’m a history student, that Israel gained its land through purchase, through the League of Nations and the United Nations, and through the legitimate spoils of traditional warfare. I also know that Israel is an open, democratic society that provides civil rights to all citizens, while the Palestinians are tyrannies that have managed to drive out their Christians and are open about making their territories Judenrein. Lastly, I know (because the facts hiding behind slanted news stories tell me so) that, in dealing with those Palestinians who loudly proclaim their desire to drive all Jews into the sea, the Israelis have done their best to minimize civilian casualties, while the Palestinians work hard to maximize civilian casualties. Knowing these facts, I finally had to acknowledge that NPR was lying to me when it would frame its reports so that it had the vile and violent Israelis hammering upon the weak and pathetic Palestinians.
The rest here.
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