From: nobody@huge.cajones.com (Huge Cajones Remailer)
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 16:38:37 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Dateline=FUD / Witness=Reality
Message-ID: <199706180813.BAA08280@fat.doobie.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



  It is interesting to note the differences between the U.S. media and 
the Canadian media in the wake of the McVeigh trial.

  Dateline NBC is milking the remaining viewer interest by doing a
fear-piece on the dangerous threat to the country that militia groups
pose, despite the fact that the McVeigh=Militia mental construct is
a total government fabrication.
  Dateline promotes great fear over the danger posed by the existence of
citizens who "resist government control." Apparently, any citizens who
wish for freedom from government control are an enemy of the government.
Any citizens who wish to take steps to be able to defend their own
personal freedom are an enemy of the government.

  Following Dateline was Witness, a Canadian show, running a production
called "Surviving Waco."
  "Surviving Waco" was a straight documentary with little "spin" to its
theme. It reviewed the Waco tragedy without placing large amounts of
blame or adding imaginary conspiracy theories.
  What made the show startling was the fact that without all of the
hype and hoopla of spin-doctored media coverage the whole affair turned
out to be a simple case of government agencies launching an assault
against a group of people who held unusual religious beliefs.

  When you strip the hype and hoopla away from the OKC bombing, what is
really left?
  A former member of the U.S. military decided that the U.S. government
is an enemy of the citizens and should be subjected to armed assault.

  Those who made the decisions resulting in the deaths of men, women
and children in Waco are drawing government paychecks while the victims
who survived the assault are in jail.
  The person who made the decision resulting in the deaths of men,
women and children in OKC faces death and the victims who survived are
heros.

  The true tragedy surrounding these events is the fact that the
media gets away with feeding the public hype and hoopla because
that is all the public really wants to hear. Reality is just too
damn scary.
  Reality is that when the government screws up an operation so
badly that it gets totally out of hand and results in the deaths
of a multitude of citizens, the survivors will be imprisoned in
order to accentuate their guilt and the government's innocence.
  Reality is that a single person with no connections to any
(perceived) radical group can commit an act of destruction 
against government buildings and their occupants, and the
government can confiscate all the weapons and do all the
wiretaps they want without making the public any more secure 
against this possibility.

  The public wants to be told that the "danger" can be removed
if this-or-that group is neutralized. The public wants the media
to name an enemy that we can be protected from--militia, drug
dealers, pornographers, cryptologists.
  Reality is too scary.
  Reality is that I can pick up the garden hoe outside and
walk over to my neighbor's house and whack his whole family
over the head, and he can do the same. (Reality is the fact
that I would spend 5 more years in prison than he, because
I have PGP on my computer.) Reality is that if government
takes away all the guns and crypto, and taps all the phones,
and even takes away my garden hoe, I can break off a good,
thick tree branch and go whack the public over the head.
(even innocent children!)

  We live in a Media Reality where the slaughter of men, women and 
children is given a spin to provide whatever illusion the media and
the polls deem will sell the most Pepsi to the public.
  The public doesn't want to hear that the 800 law enforcement agents
surrounding Waco are monsters. They don't want to hear that people can
be slaughtered for their religious beliefs by government forces. They
do want to believe that a single monster is responsible for OKC and
that killing him will remove the threat.
  And most of all, the public wants to believe that the Branch Davidians
"had it coming," because, if they didn't, then the possibilities it
raises are too frightening to imagine.

  The problem, of course, is that the greater the number and the more
varied the groups of people who resist increasing government control,
then the greater and the more varied will be the list of people who 
"have it coming."
  Currently, cryptographers are being added to the list of those who
"have it coming." The media reports of the government assault on the
meeting place for the Bay Area Cypherpunks meeting will be accompanied
by government proof of the Cypherpunks having started the fire in which
they died. There will be great media coverage of the Cypherpunks'
conspiracies to poison water supplies, make drugs and deal in child
pornography (under their "leader," Jim Bell, of course).
  Oh, I forgot about Cypherpunks' plans to "nuke D.C." If that isn't
enough to make us all "monsters" then what is?

  Of course, while we are sitting in jail (or walking toward the gas
chamber) we can take consolation in the fact that perhaps somewhere
there is a country showing a documentary which reflects the reality
of our lives and our actions, instead of the hype and hoopla needed to
sell more Pepsi.

TruthMonger