Brainwashing ... the power of repetition

The recent debacle with William Bennett, along with reporting on the federal response to Katrina, are classic examples of a second type of liberal media (redundant) tactic. I am not sure exactly what to call it, perhaps repetitive training, but it goes something like this: the liberal lays the case for some atrocious accusation against a conservative for about 99% of a discusion/interview/article, but then in the last sentence they issue the disclaimer that the person is not guilty of the accusation.

For instance ... in the Bennett case, liberals discuss racist comments, racism, how conservatives are all racists, how conservative policies are basically racist, etc. etc. etc. They probably say the "racist" word, or some derivation of it, about 100 times. Then at the end, they say that William Bennett is not racist.

Same basic thing in the Katrina situation ... the media hammered the fact that ALL the people were black (damned silly, but that does not matter) and Bush knew this, that blacks could not get out (probably because of some kind of racism) and Bush could have helped, that blacks were suffering and George Bush did not care (after all, he was in Crawford) ... etc., etc., etc. Then at the end of this long-winded case of racism and constantly (carefully) dropping in the name of George W. Bush ... they mention in closing that George W. Bush is not racist.

Why do liberals do this? The charge of racism is so easily contradicted in both these cases ... the long established actions of Msrs. Bush and Bennett are living contradictions to such claims. So to get the point across without actually saying it (libel), liberals spend the majority of the time laying the case for the accusation, but then inoculate themselves from the counter-claims by saying "but we don't want to imply that THIS person is the racist" ... leaving the racist charge attached to the ubiquitous (albeit conservative) "them".

Net result, the person who is accused of the crime has no ability to defend themselves because, after all they are not *really* accused of it.

By the way ... I would highly recommend that you pick up the book "What you say when you talk to yourself" to understand why this is so effective. Basically what is being undertaken here is a form of "programming" ... and this can be used (or just plain happens by accident) for positive or negative training. The message is conveyed over and over and over again, until you are effectively "programmed" ... so that when you hear the counterclaim at the end, your brain automatically rejects that message.

"Oh my God ... R, are you saying we are being brainwashed?" Well, no ... and yes ... not the TV version, Zombie like brainwashed walking around in a trance; but the type of training that is basically the foundation of every learning mechanism known to man. How do you learn a song ... listen to it over and over and over again. How do you memorize anything ... repetition and practice. What happens when you play back the song you memorized and something is changed or left out ... your brain says "this is wrong". What happens when some fact that you memorized and internalized is contradicted ... your brain says "this is wrong".

This is precisely the tactic that the media / liberals (redundant) are doing ... push and push and push and push an idea, and then in the end they can cover themselves by adding a minor little one line disclaimer (which the brain rejects), and the message is complete.

Watch for this ... and then make sure you make others aware of what is going on.