I work with some very smart, experienced people and yet I'm amazed at how differently they perceive the world. We are involved in analyzing military operations, so I'm used to having a disjointed feeling when comparing how activities in our two current wars are reported versus what the after action reports contain.
Of course, our forces are heavily involved in a counter insurgency effort (COIN) and there has been much discussion about the strategy that should be followed. GEN McCrystal was interviewed by NPR earlier this week and he said two things that hit me like a ton of bricks. To paraphrase the general, in COIN the insurgency tries to do two things: (1) make the people lose trust in the government and (2) separate the people from the government.
Now condider how Fox News, and other conservative media outlets, report on current conditions. Perhaps more chillingly, consider the effect on how the world is presented; two examples, (1) almost two thirds of Fox News viewers believe that WMD were found in Iraq (2) a majority of self-identified Republicans believe several of the more bizarre stories about the President (e.g., the 2008 election was stolen by ACORN, the President is not a natural born American).
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