Bush Lied, People Died...I want my MTV

I've been too busy to post about this article for a few days, but now that I'm on vacation (yay) here it is. Everybody go read this Salon article about the really, truly pathetic apathy of the American public regarding our current president.

To simply say that the public has been duped by the White House and Fox News is far too reductive, though. While some Americans are deluded about Iraq's WMD, others simply don't care. After all, if a third of Americans surveyed believe weapons of mass destruction have been found, two-thirds realize they haven't been. Meanwhile, there's been an important shift in public opinion suggesting that Americans aren't much more attached to the president's initial justification for war with Iraq than Bush himself is. Before the war, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll showed that only 38 percent of Americans felt the war would be justified even if weapons of mass destruction were not found. When the same pollsters asked that question two weeks ago, 56 percent of Americans felt the war was justified even if the weapons are never uncovered.

-snip-

..."In a way, it's Americans' insularity, their isolationism, that may be showing its ugly head," says Susan Tifft, a Duke University professor and former Time magazine writer who's written several books about American journalism. "Saddam, Osama, they all sound the same, they're all rag-heads, so who cares? I don't think a lot of Americans have taken the time or considerable trouble to find the difference between Shiite and Sunni or Saddam and Osama."

As recently I have spent all day listening to my co-workers spout the jingoism they learned watching Fox News, this sounds right to me. How can American Democracy survive if the people are fine with being lied to as long as the propaganda they're being exposed to makes them feel better about their position in the world? It's interesting psychologically, but also depressing when you think about it realistically.

Fellow Cineaste Joseph provides a link to a Moveon.org petition calling for Congress to form an investigatory commission. Let's try to shake our apathy long enough to sign it!