Many Israelis don't know a single Palestinian (NPR)

This report by NPR is well worth reading or listening to. I did not realize before it just how segregated Israeli Jews are from their Palestinian neighbors.  And considering the disinformation that Israeli Jews receive about Arabs in schools and the Israeli media, it's entirely possible that many Israelis know LESS about Palestinians than informed Americans do.  

I emphasize this because often I have heard in the U.S., usually from a conservative pundit, something like the following: "Just ask and Israeli what Arabs are like," or "We should take Israel's word for it how to deal with the Palestinians."  This report shows why this cannot be true.  Most Israelis are more isolated from Palestinians than any resident of a major U.S. city is from Arabs and Muslims.  Israelis live in a bubble of hatred and fear that they themselves created.

This story reminds us that the main purpose of ghettoization -- be it by Nazis Germans or Israeli Jews -- is to separate the citizenry of the oppressor from the oppressed, to minimize all human contact from which common ground and natural empathy might spring. Segregation makes the job of propaganda much easier: citizens can be convinced those in the ghetto are the "other" with all sorts of evil intent, and essentially sub-human, without the same human qualities as you and I. Ergo they deserve whatever bad treatment they get from the oppressor state.

Is There Any Empathy Left In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

August 4, 2014 | NPR

URL: http://n.pr/1pzbiI5

Cheater nation: 'The world is going to hell'

But no, it's not going to hell for the reasons people usually cite, like gays getting married, abortion, or Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.  

We know America is going to hell because one eccentric researcher has been keeping track, and counting all the little ways in which we all cheat and steal, from disregarding the 10-item limit in the express checkout lane to rolling through stop signs to taking candles at church without paying.  And we're getting worse, demonstrably so.

He is business professor John Trinkaus and you can find some of his work here.

I have a few ideas about why America is becoming a nation of cheaters and scammers.  I doubt it has to do with our turning away from worshiping God, as many conservatives complain.  Nay, I think it has to do with our increasing worship of wealth and success (often by those very same values-preaching conservatives), and our culture's contempt for "losers."  The absolute worst thing in America is to be labelled a loser.  (But logically, how could everybody possibly be a winner?)  

Meanwhile, how you win isn't important, nobody seems to care, it's only the outcome that matters.  And if cheating is OK when it comes to the big things, then it's doubly permissible when it comes to the small things.  Hence Prof. Trinkaus's noticing our increasingly frequent fibs, fudges and infractions.

Learning From the Things That Annoy Us

By Flora Lichtman

October 19, 2012 | NPR

URL: http://n.pr/T35GC3

Beck's site suspects O'Keefe's NPR tapes were doctored

Thank goodness for crazy right-wing conspiracy mongers posing as news sites which can police the integrity of crazy righ-twing black operators posing as investigative journalists.

See, it all balances out and we still don't need the lib'rul media... including NPR.

Does Raw Video of NPR Expose Reveal Questionalbe Editing & Tactics?

By Scott Baker

March 10, 2011 | The Blaze

URL: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/does-raw-video-of-npr-expose-reveal-questionable-editing-tactics/

Liberal-effete NPR: Renegade robots the only modern Myth?

"Looking across the last 50,000 years of storytelling it's hard to find fundamentally modern narratives that rise to the level mythology. Until you consider artificial intelligence, AI."

I do agree with liberally slanted NPR that robots turning against their human creators represents a new type of human Myth, but I vehemently disagree that it is the only modern contribution to mythology.

He-llo, ever heard of zombies, NPR ?! You're showing your elitist, effete stripes. NPR readers, too. Only one online commenter, a female of all people (Erin Bell), even sort of mentioned zombies but she got it all wrong and called them renegade robots of a sort.

Look, does anybody recall any stories about Greek, Roman, Chinese, or Native American heroes battling armies of the walking dead? No.

And there are like a thousand times more movies and books about zombies than there are about sentient renegade robots. And way better ones, too. Tell the truth: how many of you ever fell asleep watching that Kubric classic of the evil sentient machine genre, 2001: A Space Odyssey, vs. falling asleep watching Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead? I rest my case.

HAL: "Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?"

Dave: "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....."

When Robots Attack: New Mythologies For A New Age

By Adam Frank
February 16, 2011 | NPR

URL: http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/02/15/133774535/when-robots-attack-new-mythologies-for-a-new-age?sc=emaf