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    Thread: Apparently, White America is the new terrorist.

    1. #1
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      Apparently, White America is the new terrorist.

      According to the Department of Homeland Security, anyway.

      Here is an interesting little propaganda video that was just released by the DHS and FEMA. Not only is it an attempt at galvanizing American citizens into being paranoid informants for the government (a tactic that Hitler - to name but one tyrant - used to fortify his Third Reich), but it's playing upon the prejudices of minorities (justified or not). Notice that they took special care to make the perps white, and the informants of minority descent. Easily one of the most blatant propaganda pieces that I have personally seen come out of the government. Anyone how knows the 'art of the sale' knows that these things are all methodically planned. But to what end? The video just makes one wonder exactly what they are trying to accomplish, by presenting things the way they do. Are we to become a nation of 'noids (Paranoid people), ratting on each other for the most benign actions? I hope not. I'd like to think that mankind has a little more sense than that. ...I hope.

      Anyway...Enjoy.

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      Another reason for me to not come back from Canada.
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      Is this actually real? Not just satire or something?

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      Quote Originally Posted by Oneironaut View Post
      Here is an interesting little propaganda video that was just released by the DHS and FEMA. Not only is it an attempt at galvanizing American citizens into being paranoid informants for the government (a tactic that Hitler - to name but one tyrant - used to fortify his Third Reich), but it's playing upon the prejudices of minorities (justified or not). Notice that they took special care to make the perps white, and the informants of minority descent. Easily one of the most blatant propaganda pieces that I have personally seen come out of the government. Anyone how knows the 'art of the sale' knows that these things are all methodically planned. But to what end? The video just makes one wonder exactly what they are trying to accomplish, by presenting things the way they do. Are we to become a nation of 'noids (Paranoid people), ratting on each other for the most benign actions? I hope not. I'd like to think that mankind has a little more sense than that. ...I hope.

      Anyway...Enjoy.
      I clicked the link in your embedded video's description and found this:


      As pointed out it in the Youtube comments by LordKelvin, that's a pretty shitty terrorist in my book. What the hell was the point of moving the case from the perfectly good rack it was on?

      It's scary to think that we as a nation are growing more and more fearful and paranoid.
      Stop Panic[/FONT]

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      Wow, It was hard to believe that video was totally serious. Scary stuff. It doesn't seem to go into detail on what action would be taken against a person reported to be engaged in "suspicious" activity. How could they tell someone who is just strange from a terrorist without invading privacy?

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      ...what was the point of taking the suitcase off the rack?

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      Oneironaut.. I admire you.
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      I think they're just overreacting to avoid complaints from minorities of racism, by making all the bad people white.... then no one gets offended.
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      Quote Originally Posted by DeeryTheDeer View Post
      I think they're just overreacting to avoid complaints from minorities of racism, by making all the bad people white.... then no one gets offended.
      I think you're absolutely right.

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      You mean if you spot a guy dressed like a drug dealer and you say hello and they run off in terror, they might be up to something?

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      Quote Originally Posted by jarrhead View Post
      Oneironaut.. I admire you.
      Why thank you.

      Quote Originally Posted by DeeryTheDeer View Post
      I think they're just overreacting to avoid complaints from minorities of racism, by making all the bad people white.... then no one gets offended.
      I was thinking that, too. Very possible.

      Quote Originally Posted by Alric
      You mean if you spot a guy dressed like a drug dealer and you say hello and they run off in terror, they might be up to something?
      THERE'S A BOMB IN HIS WEED SACK!! Lol.
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      Fuck the US government.

      Calling Anonymous...
      Last edited by ninja9578; 07-22-2011 at 01:47 PM.

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      Quote Originally Posted by ninja9578 View Post
      Calling Anonymous...
      Calling Spartiate..
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      Xei
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      Sorry, what's so disturbing about the racial thing..? What's the conspiracy theory today, the US government (which consists entirely of racial minorities) is persecuting white people? Looks to me like they're just reminding people that terrorists aren't necessarily arabs; in fact there were black and asian terrorists in that video, too. They even outright stated this point, it's hardly some kind of sinister subliminal thing.

      I don't understand why this aspect of the video is so concerning. If every single terrorist in that video was wearing a turban, then I'd be concerned about persecuting a minority. But what's even being suggested here; that they're persecuting every non-arab American? Explain. :/

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      It's quite simple actually. While I do welcome moving away from singling out and persecuting minorities - legislature and law enforcement have been going in the direction of using loose terms, such as 'suspicious' or 'terrorist' to apply to virtually anybody. While I am strongly against the condemnation of an entire culture, this tendency is troubling, mainly because it completes the transition from a specific claim to a generic one - very naturally. Furthermore, think of the target group of the film - quite similar to the 'terrorists' in the video would be my guess. The idea is to basically encourage the thought that your 'neighbor' may very well be a terrorist and that it is best to 'keep an eye on each other' and report 'suspicious behavior'. Not only puts this an unnecessary paranoid spin on reality, 'neighborhood watch' has also been a poster stamp for excessive and unjustified use of force by governments in the past. Nice job managing to phrase your questions in a condescending way just with the second sentence by the way.

      You say you don't understand why 'this aspect' of the video is concerning. Do you find the 'PSA' concerning generally or do you see it as a friendly gesture to remind people not to discriminate?

    16. #16
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      Quote Originally Posted by dajo View Post
      Nice job managing to phrase your questions in a condescending way just with the second sentence by the way.
      Thanks, I thought it worthy of condescension.

      It's quite simple actually. While I do welcome moving away from singling out and persecuting minorities - legislature and law enforcement have been going in the direction of using loose terms, such as 'suspicious' or 'terrorist' to apply to virtually anybody. While I am strongly against the condemnation of an entire culture, this tendency is troubling, mainly because it completes the transition from a specific claim to a generic one - very naturally. Furthermore, think of the target group of the film - quite similar to the 'terrorists' in the video would be my guess. The idea is to basically encourage the thought that your 'neighbor' may very well be a terrorist and that it is best to 'keep an eye on each other' and report 'suspicious behavior'. Not only puts this an unnecessary paranoid spin on reality, 'neighborhood watch' has also been a poster stamp for excessive and unjustified use of force by governments in the past.
      Wait, what..!? What do you mean by the 'target group is similar to the terrorists in the film'? Do you think terrorists are some kind of alien creature? Should they have been played by little girls instead? I have no idea what the perceived commonality between the terrorists was that makes them akin to an innocent group of the public. Explicate.

      You say you don't understand why 'this aspect' of the video is concerning. Do you find the 'PSA' concerning generally or do you see it as a friendly gesture to remind people not to discriminate?
      I have no real clue what the PSA is, but yes, I was only referring to the racial aspect. In general I find the hype about terrorism to be extremely concerning for the reasons you delineated (turning neighbours against themselves for instance) among others, and the video is a part of that. I just don't see how the racial aspect is of concern. To speak candidly about the subtext here: it seems to me that people are pissed off that there weren't any evil Muslims in this video, and if there were, you'd have been satisfied. It's extremely ironic: this precise attitude is one of the most concerning aspects of propaganda. There was another tactic that Hitler, to name but one tyrant, used to great effect. Seems to me that you've all fallen for it. Please correct me.
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      I don't see anything suspicious about the depiction of various races. Like others, I think the media is just overly worried about using races in a way to avoid outcry.
      But the message of the video on the hand... very disturbing...
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    18. #18
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      Quote Originally Posted by Zhaylin View Post
      I don't see anything suspicious about the depiction of various races. Like others, I think the media is just overly worried about using races in a way to avoid outcry.
      But the message of the video on the hand... very disturbing...
      Liked. QFT'd. So glad there is some sanity in the world.

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      Quote Originally Posted by jarrhead View Post
      Calling Spartiate..
      Spartiate says do more than just temporarily crashing a website or two if you want change.

      As for the video... is this for real? Where would they show a 10 minute ad anyways? I don't know if the point of the add was to raise public awareness of "suspicious activities" or to try and distance muslims from said activities... I find that ironic since most terror attacks/attempts in the US ARE (unfortunately) perpetrated by islamic minorities. So condoning racial profiling may not be appropriate, but ignoring it might not work in their favour ...
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      Quote Originally Posted by Spartiate View Post
      Spartiate says do more than just temporarily crashing a website or two if you want change.
      I'll have to agree with you there.
      But releasing information does help a bit more than crashing a website.

      Quote Originally Posted by Spartiate
      As for the video... is this for real? Where would they show a 10 minute ad anyways? I don't know if the point of the add was to raise public awareness of "suspicious activities" or to try and distance muslims from said activities... I find that ironic since most terror attacks/attempts in the US ARE (unfortunately) perpetrated by islamic minorities. So condoning racial profiling may not be appropriate, but ignoring it might not work in their favour ...
      Agreed again.

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      @xei

      I think we are in agreement generally. I don't make racial or cultural differences and am not defending that viewpoint and I completely agree with Zhalyn's post as well. I should probably have not replied before. Nonetheless, I will try to explain what I mean, in this specific case.

      What I meant is that the target group, those that are supposed to see the spot and 'think' about it, is generally the group that was portrayed as terrorist*. The artificial "threat factor" is shifting more visibly from 'outside' to 'inside', a strategic move. You have the typical 20-something, the suit wearing businessman, etc. (message: "you" could be a terrorist, keeping the definition as open as possible). There are two sides - On the one hand, I want to have the arab-stigma wiped off of the general prejudice mindset, no question. On the other hand, I can't help but think that this is and has been a perfect way to increase the reach of questionable government actions towards the population in general, which is now being directly and practically applied.

      The biggest point of criticism towards laws after 9/11 have been the implications they might have for - not only a specific group (terrorists) - but for any- and everybody in the future. I think that through ads like these, this specific fear is being confirmed. Being anything but a fan of the terrorism-hype myself, I would like to have the paranoia reduced and not extended. And I don't believe that this spot is reducing stereotyping, it just extends it - it just adds to the pool of fear-mongering without lifting weight from other cultures.

      *I am not making a qualitative statement when I use this word, but at the core of the war on terror is islam extremism first and foremost. My opinion on it is irrelevant to my point, though. Remember who the people are that made this clip.

      Quote Originally Posted by Spartiate View Post
      Where would they show a 10 minute ad anyways?
      youtube is already used for pr on many levels, so i guess this is it,...
      Last edited by dajo; 07-22-2011 at 09:28 PM.

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      I don't feel there was any racial propaganda here. I think we can all agree that they were over-exaggerating racial neutrality, because lets face it, someone will always find a way to twist something that anyone says into racism. I'm saying this as a black man in America. People are overly jumpy in this country to accuse someone of racism, even when the very opposite is true. Funny, because really, there's no such thing as "race" apart from the human race. Just ethnicities.

      And though I don't personally necessarily agree, I wouldn't immediately denounce the possibility that this is just more propaganda to keep people paranoid. This country has always been about fear mongering. Keep the sheep afraid, and they will obey. Though, there is validity in the message of reporting something that is genuinely suspicious, I see no issue with that. But what it turns into is calling the cops on some guy who's been sitting in his car on the street in front of his house too long. Then the police get too tied up with those old scared "righteous citizen of Amer'KUH protecting their freedom" calls, and then have diminished resources to deal with, you know, actual crimes.

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      Here's the thing, from my perspective: when was the last time the UK was attacked by arabs? It was an entire decade ago, and only fifty people died. And yet since then, the word 'terrorist' has been fucking everywhere in our news. Constantly the politicians are talking about anti-terrorism laws (which allow you to be detained for no reason), anti-terrorism wars (which have killed ten times more nationals than the terrorism), etc. etc. etc. Who gives a shit?? A thousandfold more people have died from, I don't know, goddamn diabetes. And of course, the only reason the public feels any semblance of terror because of this minuscule issue, which it rarely actually does anyway, is because the government and the press are constantly screaming at it to feel terrorised. We even have a numbered fucking system to tell us EXACTLY HOW MUCH FUCKING TERROR YOU SHOULD BE FEELING RIGHT NOW because of brown people.

      In the last few years, we've had (white) Irish car bombs, and some (black) guy from Yemen trying to blow up a plane. But it's still the Muslims we should be scared of.

      And as an almost humorous demonstration of this, just today, a bomb goes off in Norway. The press in the US, the UK, goes nuts. 'It's just speculation but, the Norwegian press published those anti-Islamic cartoons a few years ago! And they had a... peace force in Afghanistan... this must be the Muslims! Let's talk about the international consequences of this and determine exactly how terrified we should be of Muslims right now'. A few hours later, a gunman starts shooting down kids in a Norwegian Labour Party youth camp. Seems like a domestic thing now, right? No, no evidence of that, let's talk some more about the evil arabs and speculate about why they did this. Multiple eye-witness accounts that the gunman is of Nordic ethnicity? Disregard that everybody, it's the fucking Muslims still. Confirmation of this from a minister? We'll talk about that later, for now let's make sure the evening news is ready to tell everybody about this fucking evil Muslim conspiracy.

      That's why I find it very concerning when members of the public get upset because there weren't enough Muslims in a piece of anti-terrorism propaganda.
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      I agree that everybody is overly alarmist about terrorism, but it's a reality that over the last 50 years, islamic groups have been responsible for an overwhelming majority of high profile global terrorism. It's something the whole muslim community will have to live with for a long time, in the same way that Germans are associated with Nazis and Native Americans with scalping savages.

      I think the biggest reason that islamic groups come up so often is because they attack everywhere. The IRA doesn't attack Spain and the Red Brigade doesn't take on Indonesia, but Islamic groups are going after everybody, which is an easy way to get international attention.

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      Quote Originally Posted by Spartiate View Post
      I agree that everybody is overly alarmist about terrorism, but it's a reality that over the last 50 years, islamic groups have been responsible for an overwhelming majority of high profile global terrorism. It's something the whole muslim community will have to live with for a long time, in the same way that Germans are associated with Nazis and Native Americans with scalping savages.

      I think the biggest reason that islamic groups come up so often is because they attack everywhere. The IRA doesn't attack Spain and the Red Brigade doesn't take on Indonesia, but Islamic groups are going after everybody, which is an easy way to get international attention.
      Quoted for truth.

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