I have just completed reading Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity - Get Out the Shovel -- Why Everything You Know Is Wrong by John Stossel - member of ABC's 20/20. This is the second book by John that I have certainly enjoyed. Not since Eric Hoffer have I found so much in concert with an author of social/political information and ideas.
His first book, Give Me a Break was an enjoyable romp over the writhing carcases of pompous politicians, media personalities and others who seem to think their ideas to be sacrosanct. John tells it as he sees it. It was a truly refreshing and candid reporting of observations from one in the "holy" media who can see through the smoke and mirrors and define the real truth for all willing to read and see.
Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity is a thought-provoking sequel to his first effort. The several comments below from the back cover are timely and echo my own opinion.
"Proving that learning can indeed be fun, John Stossel flays conventional wisdom with startling research and straight talk. Reading Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity will make you immediately smarter than your friends. And that’s no lie."
Bill O’Reilly, Anchor, Fox News Channel
"If John Stossel weren't such a troublemaker, he’d be considered a national treasure. But he is an equal-opportunity offender [A phrase I have used to describe my own writing for at least the last seven years.], sticking thorns in the side of whoever happens to deserve it at the moment. Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity is Stossel at his very best: blunt, brilliant, counterintuitive—and, best of all,brutally impatient with the droners, yes-men, and hustlers who try to hide the truth from us.
Stephen J. Dubner, co-author, Freakanomics
_______________________________________________________
I want to quote several parts of his book, but will hjave to wait for permission to do so. As soon as I receive that permission, I will add them to this blog.
Here’s my request to the publisher:
I am a relatively unknown writer and blogger who writes both fiction and non. Much of my non-fiction is political. John Stossel's latest book, "Myths, Lies etc." tells me he is about the closest to my political philosophy of any writer since Eric Hoffer. I would like permission to quote his Introduction and Conclusion in their entirety in my "Family and Friends blog." I have a rather small following of about fifty people who sometimes read my blogs. I would be glad to provide a complete text of the blog if necessary.
_______________________________________________________
Insertions will be made as indicated when permission is granted.
_______________________________________________________
Start of the blog
Meanings long lost:
Liberal - conservative, right-wing - left-wing, Democrat - Republican, socialist - capitalist, black - white, Muslim - Jew - Christian: thanks to the omnipotence of the omnipresent media, these terms have become virtually meaningless and are now almost always used to transfer the blame for political, religious and social evils from oneself to another group of "evil" people. "They are responsible!" is the phrase that comes to mind. It really doesn’t matter much who "they" are as long as "they" are some ones other than ourselves and preferably some group to which some manner of evil stigma can be attached. The truth of it matters not as long as you can get enough people to complain about it loudly enough and with enough force of numbers - primarily vocal numbers, and even violence, or those efforts that appeal to the protestations of the media/entertainment world. These primarily, non-thinking, like minded sheep, will dedicate mindless effort to the condemnation and destruction of virtually any thing, system, person, promotion or purpose that is not in concert with their particular belief system. They will do so even to the extent of much violence and their own destruction. They rarely even attempt any really constructive effort. They are destroyers, not builders, and they are winning the minds of millions all over the world. Hate really does work Ask Hitler, or Pol Pot, or Stalin, or any of the many kinds of terrorists now ravaging the planet, and even many "peace" protestors.
Until recently I believed there were only a very few people who recognized any of these facts at all other than men like Eric Hoffer, Phillip Wylie, my father and a very few others even less known. I am now able to add another voice to this astute group, that of John Stossel of ABC’s 20/20. In his most recent and quite unusual book of mundane yet powerful observations, Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity. John reports the results of his research into many of the commonly held and almost "sacred" opinions that are so very wrong.
John makes some enlightening statements in his introduction, he says:
"MYTH-BUSTING is fun. I wound up doing it by accident: Researching consumer stories, I discovered that much of what I thought to be true was nonsense.
"On the other hand, "myth" doesn’t necessarily mean "false"—it can also mean "a popular belief or tradition." Occasionally, just as we were ready to shovel the nonsense away, a myth would turn out to be true."
The balance of the Introduction will be entered here when I receive permission.
He hits one of my favorites on the first page of the first chapter entitled, "Clueless Media." I quote:
"MYTH: The media will check it out and give you the objective truth.
"TRUTH: Many in the media are scientifically clueless, and will scare you to death."
______________________________________________________
The information between that revelation and his final conclusion is positively brutal, wonderfully refreshing and deadly accurate. Should you read his book and my commentary, I hope you will understand why the liberal wing of my family considers me a right wing extremist and my moderately conservative mid-western friends see me as far too liberal for them. The following is a quote of his entire conclusion: [Bracketed words in italics are mine.]
______________________________________________________
MYTH: John Stossel is a conservative.
TRUTH: I’m a libertarian.
PEOPLE CALL ME A CONSERVATIVE.
I understand why. The publisher of my last book called me the "scourge of the Liberal Media" on the cover. Liberal writers call me "that conservative on ABC." Not that they actually know what the word means—to many on the mainstream media, "conservative" seems to mean anyone they don’t trust or don’t like. They even call extreme leftists. Like Soviet and Chinese Communists, "hard-line conservatives."
The major portion of the Conclusion will be entered here when I receive permission.
I want the word "liberal" back! Today’s liberals stole it and perverted it. They’ve changed it into a philosophy that advocates health police, high taxes, and speech codes [PC anyone?] and despise the creative liberalism of free markets. "Liberal" doesn’t mean liberal anymore. [How true! How true! How true!]
In the eighteenth century, libertarianism or liberalism, was a reaction against monarchy, the aristocracy, and established religion. The limits on state power embodied in the Declaration and the Constitution offered a liberal alternative to the dictatorship of the central planners. [A perfect description of the bureaucracy that now controls our lives.] It affirmed that we had "unalienable rights."
The founders’ vision of limited government encouraged Americans to voluntarily join with others to help their communities and themselves. It led us to create a nation that is prosperous, free, and peaceful. We have done it not because we were compelled, but because we were free to do so. Believe that the best thing about America is free people exercising the unalienable rights the Founding Fathers affirmed: having families, forming communities, and working together—mostly without government.
It’s a very old, very liberal idea.
End of John Stossel’s Conclusion.
__________________________________________________
I would go one step further than John Stossel and have renamed today’s liberals as "feudals" in my book The Feudals. Feudals are the opposite of true liberals as they openly advocate an authoritarian socialist dictatorship with their leaders as the intellectually superior ruling class controlling every action of the common people or "serfs." All ideas, systems and philosophies that do not submit to their "superior authority" are to be silenced and suppressed. If they succeed, Americans will become subject to the authoritarian, autocratic rule our founding fathers left Europe and fought and died to escape. Today’s liberalism is yesterday’s feudalism in modern clothing. It is the enemy of all kinds of freedoms, individual enterprise, capitalism and certainly will enslave and become the nemesis of the common man.
Howard Johnson July 31, 2006
His first book, Give Me a Break was an enjoyable romp over the writhing carcases of pompous politicians, media personalities and others who seem to think their ideas to be sacrosanct. John tells it as he sees it. It was a truly refreshing and candid reporting of observations from one in the "holy" media who can see through the smoke and mirrors and define the real truth for all willing to read and see.
Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity is a thought-provoking sequel to his first effort. The several comments below from the back cover are timely and echo my own opinion.
"Proving that learning can indeed be fun, John Stossel flays conventional wisdom with startling research and straight talk. Reading Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity will make you immediately smarter than your friends. And that’s no lie."
Bill O’Reilly, Anchor, Fox News Channel
"If John Stossel weren't such a troublemaker, he’d be considered a national treasure. But he is an equal-opportunity offender [A phrase I have used to describe my own writing for at least the last seven years.], sticking thorns in the side of whoever happens to deserve it at the moment. Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity is Stossel at his very best: blunt, brilliant, counterintuitive—and, best of all,brutally impatient with the droners, yes-men, and hustlers who try to hide the truth from us.
Stephen J. Dubner, co-author, Freakanomics
_______________________________________________________
I want to quote several parts of his book, but will hjave to wait for permission to do so. As soon as I receive that permission, I will add them to this blog.
Here’s my request to the publisher:
I am a relatively unknown writer and blogger who writes both fiction and non. Much of my non-fiction is political. John Stossel's latest book, "Myths, Lies etc." tells me he is about the closest to my political philosophy of any writer since Eric Hoffer. I would like permission to quote his Introduction and Conclusion in their entirety in my "Family and Friends blog." I have a rather small following of about fifty people who sometimes read my blogs. I would be glad to provide a complete text of the blog if necessary.
_______________________________________________________
Insertions will be made as indicated when permission is granted.
_______________________________________________________
Start of the blog
Meanings long lost:
Liberal - conservative, right-wing - left-wing, Democrat - Republican, socialist - capitalist, black - white, Muslim - Jew - Christian: thanks to the omnipotence of the omnipresent media, these terms have become virtually meaningless and are now almost always used to transfer the blame for political, religious and social evils from oneself to another group of "evil" people. "They are responsible!" is the phrase that comes to mind. It really doesn’t matter much who "they" are as long as "they" are some ones other than ourselves and preferably some group to which some manner of evil stigma can be attached. The truth of it matters not as long as you can get enough people to complain about it loudly enough and with enough force of numbers - primarily vocal numbers, and even violence, or those efforts that appeal to the protestations of the media/entertainment world. These primarily, non-thinking, like minded sheep, will dedicate mindless effort to the condemnation and destruction of virtually any thing, system, person, promotion or purpose that is not in concert with their particular belief system. They will do so even to the extent of much violence and their own destruction. They rarely even attempt any really constructive effort. They are destroyers, not builders, and they are winning the minds of millions all over the world. Hate really does work Ask Hitler, or Pol Pot, or Stalin, or any of the many kinds of terrorists now ravaging the planet, and even many "peace" protestors.
Until recently I believed there were only a very few people who recognized any of these facts at all other than men like Eric Hoffer, Phillip Wylie, my father and a very few others even less known. I am now able to add another voice to this astute group, that of John Stossel of ABC’s 20/20. In his most recent and quite unusual book of mundane yet powerful observations, Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity. John reports the results of his research into many of the commonly held and almost "sacred" opinions that are so very wrong.
John makes some enlightening statements in his introduction, he says:
"MYTH-BUSTING is fun. I wound up doing it by accident: Researching consumer stories, I discovered that much of what I thought to be true was nonsense.
"On the other hand, "myth" doesn’t necessarily mean "false"—it can also mean "a popular belief or tradition." Occasionally, just as we were ready to shovel the nonsense away, a myth would turn out to be true."
The balance of the Introduction will be entered here when I receive permission.
He hits one of my favorites on the first page of the first chapter entitled, "Clueless Media." I quote:
"MYTH: The media will check it out and give you the objective truth.
"TRUTH: Many in the media are scientifically clueless, and will scare you to death."
______________________________________________________
The information between that revelation and his final conclusion is positively brutal, wonderfully refreshing and deadly accurate. Should you read his book and my commentary, I hope you will understand why the liberal wing of my family considers me a right wing extremist and my moderately conservative mid-western friends see me as far too liberal for them. The following is a quote of his entire conclusion: [Bracketed words in italics are mine.]
______________________________________________________
MYTH: John Stossel is a conservative.
TRUTH: I’m a libertarian.
PEOPLE CALL ME A CONSERVATIVE.
I understand why. The publisher of my last book called me the "scourge of the Liberal Media" on the cover. Liberal writers call me "that conservative on ABC." Not that they actually know what the word means—to many on the mainstream media, "conservative" seems to mean anyone they don’t trust or don’t like. They even call extreme leftists. Like Soviet and Chinese Communists, "hard-line conservatives."
The major portion of the Conclusion will be entered here when I receive permission.
I want the word "liberal" back! Today’s liberals stole it and perverted it. They’ve changed it into a philosophy that advocates health police, high taxes, and speech codes [PC anyone?] and despise the creative liberalism of free markets. "Liberal" doesn’t mean liberal anymore. [How true! How true! How true!]
In the eighteenth century, libertarianism or liberalism, was a reaction against monarchy, the aristocracy, and established religion. The limits on state power embodied in the Declaration and the Constitution offered a liberal alternative to the dictatorship of the central planners. [A perfect description of the bureaucracy that now controls our lives.] It affirmed that we had "unalienable rights."
The founders’ vision of limited government encouraged Americans to voluntarily join with others to help their communities and themselves. It led us to create a nation that is prosperous, free, and peaceful. We have done it not because we were compelled, but because we were free to do so. Believe that the best thing about America is free people exercising the unalienable rights the Founding Fathers affirmed: having families, forming communities, and working together—mostly without government.
It’s a very old, very liberal idea.
End of John Stossel’s Conclusion.
__________________________________________________
I would go one step further than John Stossel and have renamed today’s liberals as "feudals" in my book The Feudals. Feudals are the opposite of true liberals as they openly advocate an authoritarian socialist dictatorship with their leaders as the intellectually superior ruling class controlling every action of the common people or "serfs." All ideas, systems and philosophies that do not submit to their "superior authority" are to be silenced and suppressed. If they succeed, Americans will become subject to the authoritarian, autocratic rule our founding fathers left Europe and fought and died to escape. Today’s liberalism is yesterday’s feudalism in modern clothing. It is the enemy of all kinds of freedoms, individual enterprise, capitalism and certainly will enslave and become the nemesis of the common man.
Howard Johnson July 31, 2006
posted by HoJo | 12:10 PM
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