The following is a guest post authored by DemocracyRules.
Through a generalized appetite for fact abuse, truth pollution, and attention deficit disorder, the MSM returns again and again to many false and misleading stories. Most things are contaminated by their mindless obsession with Socialist interpretations of events. These are the ones that bother me the most. What’s your list?
‘We Lost the Vietnam War’
This is a pathetically simplistic claim. The Vietnam War led to allied Cold War victory in the long-term. The Soviets lost the Cold War partly because they wasted massive resources on the North Vietnamese military. To the MSM, North Vietnam ‘won’ by converting the whole of Vietnam into a Stalinist state. It is now one of the poorest countries on earth.
‘Overpopulation and Global Poverty’
This one really bothers me, because it’s so unfair. World population is growing (but the rate of increase is leveling off). The great news is that global wealth is growing faster. Even in most poor countries, real GDP is growing, and the percentage who live in real poverty is declining. The MSM refuses to cover this wonderful story. Of course, a story that features free enterprise saving the world from poverty is not very ‘interesting’ to Socialists.
‘Soviet Apologias’
The MSM continues their extensive coverage and reprise of Nazi crimes (Fascists were the main enemies of the Socialists). There is almost no coverage of the crimes of Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchov, or other Socialists. Uncounted tens of millions died from Soviet Communism, and millions more are still dying from it. The Soviets brutally subjugated their people, destroyed democracy, starved millions of Ukranians to death, ran death camps for their German POW’s, victimized and murdered dissenters by the trainload, and bankrupted the country with useless hyper-militarism. They also left huge poverty in their wake, from which it will take many more years for the victim countries to recover. The Russian suicide rate is now the second highest in the world, and life expectancy (M=60, F=74) has fallen to one of the lowest among the industrialized countries. Much of this is attributable to the massive social disruptions leading up to, and following, the collapse of the Soviet Union.
‘The China Syndrome’
It never was true, and it never happened. The idea was that nuclear reactors would fail spectacularly, and the nuclear reaction (which essentially makes heat to boil water), could get out of control, just like if a kettle ran dry on a stove. This could happen, the MSM said, if the water flowing around the reactor suddenly stopped circulating. There would be no more water to boil, and the reaction would continue, with no cooling effects. The whole reactor could get so hot it would melt right down into the ground, like it was going all the way to China! This never happened, because nuclear reactors, like modern electric kettles, shut off if they get too hot.
However, the fears of a ‘China Syndrome’ scared the heck out of the American people. This myth caused huge changes in energy planning, because no new reactors could get approval. This scare happened in the middle of oil shortages, and it contributed a lot to the high energy costs and shortages that we have now, and the US dependence on foreign oil. Nuclear reactors with proven, excellent safety standards have been available for years. Chernobyl was the place where a nuclear reactor accident occurred in the Soviet Union. That reactor was so badly designed it even lacked a containment facility (that big fortified concrete building which contains trouble even if every conceivable disaster happens at once). Given that the Soviets had trouble building Lada’s, how could one possibly expect their nuclear reactors would be well-designed?
‘Running Out of Oil’ – No we’re not
There are vast petroleum resources in the Middle East, with more being discovered there all the time (literally, 100 billion additional barrels confirmed in Iraq, last week). The resource estimates made by oil companies are very conservative, for various internal business reasons. Russia has huge petroleum resources. China has large reserves in Xinjiang province, which are mostly undeveloped. More oil is being discovered all the time, worldwide. If that’s not enough, Canada alone holds more than 7 times the proven petroleum reserves of Saudi Arabia, and could readily supply the world single-handedly for many decades if necessary. Because Canada’s petroleum reserves are mainly in oil sands, they are classed as ‘unconventional reserves’, and not counted at all by the strange people who make these oil reserve estimates. Large volumes of Alberta oil sands petroleum are already piped to the US. Colorado also has large reserves of oil shale, petroleum held in rock, that is just now being seriously exploited. Not a single MSM ‘Running out of Oil’ story is true, and they have been publishing these false stories for decades, in spite of compelling evidence to the contrary.
‘Endemic Poverty’ – The bottom 15% will always be with us
If you calculate ‘poverty’ as the lowest 15%, of income, of course it will always be with us! I cannot tell you how surprised I was to learn how the MSM calculates poverty. Among sociologists, and others who study variables like socio-economic status and income, it is acceptable for statistical purposes to designate the bottom 15% of the ‘bell curve’ of incomes as ‘low income’, or sometimes, ‘the poor’. (By the way, the ‘bell curve’ for income is actually stretched out quite a bit on the right-hand side, by a small number of high income people.) Of course sociologists know the lowest 15% is not an objective measure of real poverty. In 20 years, the bottom 15% of the distribution can still be called ‘low income’, compared to the others. If you wanted to be silly, you could proclaim that poverty has not changed in 20 years, because it still comprises 15% of the population! Well, of course it does if you define it that way! In 20 years, the bottom 15% of the income distribution may be dragging along the ground in Lamborghinis and Roll-Royces, while the others zoom around in Sky Cars. The MSM could still proclaim that the bottom 15% is ‘poor’, and endemic, and still with us! I kid you not, this is a common method the MSM uses to report ‘Endemic Poverty’.
Often, in the middle of an MSM story about poverty, we cut to the Homeless. This group is key for Socialists, who often call them the ‘Lumpenproletariat’. These are the ‘victims of modern society’, the poorest of the poor. This group seems so very unlucky, and so very capitalist-victimised. The problem with this is that most of the Homeless have a serious, untreated psychopathology, like severe depression, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, or dementia. Many of these people refuse housing, and most refuse medical treatment for their mental problems. This is tragic, and mental health professionals are still working on methods to treat them. However, this is not what Marx meant by the Lumpenproletariat. For one thing, in a perfect Socialist worker’s paradise, these Homeless would still exist (as they do in Sweden), unless you forced them into treatment. They comprise roughly 2% to 5% of the population. This is not the Lumpenproletariat, this is just lumpy reasoning by the MSM, desperate to find victims of capitalism.
The ‘Poor Are Getting Poorer, and the Rich Are Getting Richer’
And the MSM is getting dumber? What does the MSM think the relentless growth in real GDP means? Bacon and eggs? Of course it means that the average person is becoming progressively better off. Furthermore, both the poor and the rich are getting richer. It is true that according to a well-known statistical principle called the ‘Coefficient of Variation’, as the average goes up, the variability can also go up. Income dispersion increases a bit, but the average person is better off, and the percentage of people who are in real poverty decreases. So, no, the poor are not getting poorer. This is great news for the USA, but it’s bad news for Socialist theory. Capitalism wins again.
‘Iraq Had No WMD’
Uh, what about the 500 tons of yellowcake? Hellooo, anyone here?
Doom Theories and ‘Global Warming’
Does the MSM think the public is so unremittingly dumb that we will fall for the next silly Doom Theory?
‘The Defeat in Iraq’
No news means the US is winning. I’m Canadian. Have I thanked you Americans enough lately for standing up to those despicable terrorists the way you do? Ample evidence is available from non-MSM sources, including eyewitness reporting, and objective statistics, that the US is winning. The only news covered by the MSM is the negative news. Victory in Iraq would be a victory for the Republicans, who are the enemies of Socialism.
Abysmal Health/Medicine Reporting
The MSM could not get a health story right if their lives depended on it.
News consumers need to ‘vote with their feet’, as former citizens of Eastern Europe sometimes say.
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