Whatever you think about 9/11 as doubts about it increase - we know what followed from it.
We know that a MASSIVE centralized intelligence agency was created and that NSA-spying went into effect.
Conservatives, upset at the attack and scared of terrorists, pushed for government action and better detection to make sure this never happened again, and strongly supported the centralized agency, the Patriot Act without concern about NSA-spying.
Though they normally oppose large government agencies, what characteristics did conservatives have which made them susceptible to a centralization of agencies? They are suspicious of foreigners and in an national emergency, implicitly trust the president and the military
Liberals, upset at the attack, accepted the centralized agency but came to oppose the Patriot Act and strongly opposed NSA-spying. They also saw a larger context for why the attack might have happened (US mistreatment of Muslim countries) and so did not focus on Muslims or have a big fear of terrorism. They see how it can be used as a trick.
Okay, so one group goes against its natural fear of big government, driven by its greater fear of terrorists and trust in everything military.
And the other group has on-going suspicion of US foreign policy and a distrust of the military and sees the lies and opposes loss of constitutional rights.
In any case, a giant spying agency with vast data-banking of American citizens was set up.
Now, there is another push for another MASSIVE centralized agency - the Department of Food Safety that would bring together the FDA and the USDA (run by Big Pharma and Big Pharm) which would rely on another vast computer data-banking, NAIS - the National Animal Identification - IDing the land of every farmer and the GPS movement of every farm animal in the country.
Now watch the reversals here and what group is afraid and which one opposes loss of rights.
Conservatives - at least among farmers and ranchers - STRONGLY oppose NAIS. Though they did not flinch at NSA-spying on people because of their fear of terrorism, they see NAIS as a major and intolerable violation of their civil rights and privacy (and for some like the Amish, of their religious rights) and even consider the insertion of GPS tracking tags into every animal as the opening to do the same to human beings (and the government does want to imbed GPS tracking devices in our drivers licenses). The argument being pushed for NAIS is food safety and farmers and ranchers do not buy it nor trust the agencies promoting it. They are not afraid of germs so they are able to stand up against losing their constitutional rights as citizens and see NAIS as only a huge corporate move aimed at destroying farmers and ranchers out of business, since they and the sustainable agriculture are the "opposition" (competition) to corporations.
Liberals - unafraid of terrorists and usually highly distrustful of government pronouncements and government agencies and seeing corporate corruption of government everywhere when it comes to war or the EPA, are scared of germs.
Just as conservatives jump when a "terrorist" red flag is waved by government, calling themselves patriotic to back the Patriot act and spying on us that destroys our democracy, liberals jump when the government declares a food scare, declaring themselves "scientific" to demand one regulation after another that the corporations want, that will destroy our farmers and take over our food supply.
They can't hear each other because they have different fears and different ingrained trust of the answers to save them from those fears - police or science.
MASSIVE CENTRALIZATION OF INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES
When liberals tried to tell conservatives there were no WMDs, it didn't get through.
Conservatives believe deeply in patriotism and their fear of "the enemy" so couldn't be dislodged by any amount of evidence that they were being lied to, or by any efforts by liberal groups to point out that they were being spied on in violation of the constitution. And conservatives who hate big government and whose religious beliefs even warms them of a single world order and numbering everyone, still supported a vast data bank in the hands of bigger and bigger government and actual spying. No WMDs or who was benefitting (oil and contracting and arms companies) or who was being targeted (Muslims sitting on the most oil) for what purpose (oil), mattered.
Now let's put the shoe on the other foot.
MASSIVE CENTRALIZATION OF DATA ON ON EVERY FARMER AND RANCHER AND ANIMAL IN THE US AND CONSTANT TRACKING - NAIS.
Conservative farmers and ranchers can't get liberals to let go of their deeply held fears or beliefs, either.
Liberals are not scared of terrorists (they see that as a wildly exaggerated fear to control people) - no, they fear germs and diseases. And their supremely trusting belief (parallel to the conservative's implicit trust in military force) is in "science" and in ever more regulations and giant agencies to protect them from illness. And, just as with the conservative inability to distrust the president or the military, no amount of pointing to fake food scares (like fake WMDs), and who is benefitting (agribusiness and food and animal processors) and past mistakes of science or its use by fascists in the past, gets through.
- So, one group that vehemently opposes big government and regulations and loss of their personal freedoms is so scared when the government yells "terrorist" they'll sell every belief in independence down the river for an BIG agency with a BIG data bank to find those enemies and will let them do whatever they want to liberals.
- And another group that totally distrusts government and corporations and guards its civil rights with ferocity, is so scared when the government yells "food borne bacteria," every suspicious political and anti-corporate bone in their bodies is ignored in a push for regulations that will save them from their enemy - germs. And they will sell their independence for a BIG agency with a BIG data bank to find those bacteria and will let that agency do whatever it wants to farmers and ranchers.
Both groups share fear and rigid beliefs - in patriotism and in science - as though neither could ever be manipulated for someone's gain. As though both had not been manipulated by the Nazis only very recently, and used to establish what is being established here - extreme (killing, even) government/corporate control over people and over every resource they could get their hands on.
- 9/11 and the fear of terrorism opened the door to the centralization of intelligence agencies and the data banking of information on the American people. NSA-spying began.
- Now, using fear of bacteria, the government is proposing another massive centralization of data on our agricultural and health resources, in the name of "terrifying" epidemics. NAIS is being forced into place.
Until conservatives conquer their fear of other people and their blind trust in military and police power, and until liberals get over their fear of bacteria and their blind faith in science, those seeking immense systems to control us and take what is ours - our democracy and our resources - will continue to succeed.
The FDA already has regulations on the books that are designed by Homeland Security to "protect" us from a combination of both our fears - of terrorists AND of bacteria - bioterrorism. That, too, can easily be faked, and using it, police and military (which already have their marching orders in place) would rush in to "save" us - destroying crops, destroying livestock, and leaving us in the hands of whom?
You guessed it. Those who caused the diseases - feeding cattle ground up cattle til bizarre diseases result, spreading contaminated poultry waste out of fields til wild birds become ill - now waiting in readiness with GE-animals (an GE-evil idea) to replace normal ones and finish off our ranchers.
Industrial agriculture will have won. Won. In a great worldwide battle to grab all resources and control them utterly. Despite it causing 1/3 of global warming and despite people around the world increasingly wanting good and clean and normal food, despite rejecting the torturous conditions of industrializaton of animals, despite the use of petroleum based pesticides that are killing our soil, giving us cancer and being washed into our oceans to kill off fish, and despite wanting the rebirth of small farmers as a local food security measure and the wonder of real farming - industrialization of nature and its privatization by multinational corporations using governments as their policing methods, will have won. Worldwide fascism will have won.
Set aside politics. This article says both conservatives and liberals are being jerked around by their shortest hairs to be afraid and out of each of their deepest fears and each of their rigidly held beliefs, both promote HUGE SYSTEMS that LITERALLY destroy our freedoms and take away our democratic fall back position (our farmers and ranchers) and take over all the resources we need to exist.
I leave you with a few links to give some idea how emergencies can be valuable to those who cause them and who are ready to replace what is lost with products that are patented.
- Bird Flu; http://www.organicconsumers.org/...
- Poultry Industry and Bird Flu; http://www.globalresearch.ca/... and
- GM Chickens. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/...
As you can see in Asia, the poultry industry is using the crisis to push out small farmers.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/...
A bio-terrorism "emergency," a Mad Cow or Bird Flu scare, can do the same here. Martial law declared, military and police move in, crops destroyed, animals stocks wiped out. And we are left in whose hands?
You guess.
The very corporations responsible for the diseases, waiting with genetically engineered crops and animals - all patented, all fully privatized, leaving us all with open human access to nature.
Good-bye normal, unpatented, unprivatized seeds. Good-bye normal, unpatented, unprivatized animals.
One must realize in the push to save us from "terrible diseases" that the very companies which are considered the cause of Bird Flu and Mad Cow - the big Ag corporations - are the ones pushing NAIS for our safety. Yest those same corporations do all they can to prevent the inspection of slaughter houses or to increase the allowable limits on poultry or pig or cattle contamination produced in their poultry factories and hog factories or massive feedlots. And those same corporations are linked to the corporations selling the drugs for the diseases caused through their filth. The same drug companies providing the steroids, hormones, antibiotics and pesticides the animals are exposed to or injected with and which lead to resistant bacteria and illnesses.
And all the while, those corporations, both PHARM and PHARMA are working to wipe out independent, clean small farming operations. Real farming. Our only chance at sustainable agriculture.
Those corporations are READY for a "bioterrorism attack" (real or faked) and the bonanza it will be for them as well their chance to kill off normal animals to and force the substitution of genetically engineered ones that would no more belong to the ranchers or farmers then, than GE-seeds belong to farmers now. And I assume, like with patented genetically engineered seeds, all offspring of GE-animals (makes me upset to even write that word) would belong to the corporations. Or maybe the coporations would use terminator genes and there would be no offspring ....
My dear conservative and liberal brothers and sisters, it's way part time to get over our fears and let go of our rigid beliefs and answers They are costing us too much. We must oppose all HUGE CENTRALIZED DATA BANKS and any regulations that reduce the independence of our farmers and ranchers - or anyone of us.
It's time to start looking out for each others' freedoms.
We get it that globalization has been a terrible for our country and its people - from NAFTA to CAFTA to GATT - and great for multinationals so we should see that the huge data banks being pushed by corporations are a means to more globalization (MORE GLOBAL CONTROL OF US AND RESOURCES). This is not for the benefit of people around the world who want tprivacy, their own lives, democratic rights, and their own (real and local) resources (including all food supplies).
NSA-spying is not okay to stop terrorism and NAIS is not okay to stop germs.
And both germs and terrorism are much smaller threats to our lives than the loss of our freedoms. Both are being used to put these giant corporate control systems into place and their methods are a new page from the Nazis' playbook - a manipulated "science of hygiene" and a intensely revved up fear and hatred of "others" who are different from us.
Once GPS tracking tags are inserted into drivers licenses, people will be tracked, too (they are already tracked by cell phone GPS coordinates). Which means that only since 9/11 - every single one of us and every farm animal will be tracked and all farm land overseen.
Time to get together, people, and hold the line on our freedoms, because the corporations are taking over every damn thing god ever made and claiming to utterly own nature, having "improved on it" - and after wiping out all access to the real thing.