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From: myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Latitudinarian Lobster)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Myers on nrh on "untrue propaganda"
Message-ID: <1788@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Dec-85 12:54:55 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1788
Posted: Thu Dec 12 12:54:55 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 16-Dec-85 19:24:54 EST
References: <4690@alice.UUCP>
Organization: Ken Kopp's Fresh Seafood Tank
Lines: 57

> I find it interesting that when Myers is advised of a news 
> story counter to his beliefs he dismisses it as "untrue
> propaganda" and continues.  When I (or other posters)
> have questioned some of Myer's [sic] sources, we're considered
> "American Apologists" and other such awful things.
> 
> (ihnp4;allegra;research)!alice!jj

Actually, I can't remember a time in recent history when any of my sources
have been openly questioned.  Now, I'm sure you'll admit, jj, that not
everything one reads or views is true -- therefore one has to have some
form of criteria for determining what to believe and not to believe.

Counterposed to things like Shirley Christian's (now a reporter for the
NYT, so I'll soon be switching to the Christian Science Monitor for my
mainstream news source) book supportive of the contras, government white
papers, US and Mexican TV, and other mainstream powers-that-be sources,
I have my own memories of what I saw in Nicaragua, acquaintances who have
been there, a plethora of books, reports from non-mainstream media (NACLA
Reports, The Guardian, The Nation, etc.), and my knowledge of Nicaraguan,
Latin American, and world history.

Now, the usenet article in question was a vague reference to a Mexican
TV report received in the US.  I know nothing about the station or program
in question.  However, I have been given little reason to doubt the
credibility of the sources I rely on, e.g. Amnesty International, my own
eyes and ears, etc.  I also been faced during my brief existence with the
incontrovertible fact that the United States, since the Spanish-American
War, has gone out of its way to crush any truly progressive government it
has been able to get its hands on.  I'm willing to go into detail on any
of the following cases: the Philippines immediately following the joint
US-Filipino defeat of the Spanish; Chile in the early 1970's; Guatemala
in 1954; Nicaragua from the 1920's till the present; the Dominican Republic
in 1965; Vietnam from 1945-1975; Greece following WWII; Spain just before
WWII; Cuba from 1960 till the present; ad infinitum.

Don't you folks see the pattern here, or are you so a part of the pattern
that it's a part of you?

I argued that an EPS massacre of civilians is totally inconsistent with
recent Nicaraguan history -- Gil Neiger went on to point out the contra
practice (which they probably learned from the movie, *Where Eagles Dare*)
of dressing up in captured uniforms to commit atrocities, which makes a
great deal of historical sense.

Again, beliefs are founded on a great deal of experiencial evidence, just
like scientific theories and paradigms.  A trip to Nicaragua Libre will
do alot towards breaking you out of the US powers-that-be paradigm, if
you will only take the chance.

-- 
Jeff Myers				The views above may or may not
University of Wisconsin-Madison		reflect the views of any other
Madison Academic Computing Center	person or group at UW-Madison.
ARPA: uwmacc!myers@rsch.wisc.edu
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