The Petraeus ad and my reactions to it

[hserus]

Seeing all the noise around this made me think a bit.

Sneak propaganda and personal attacks masquerading as political action is reprehensible, whether it is Eli Pariser and Moveon.org doing it, or purveyors of right wing froth like Ann Coulter, or backstairs political manipulators like Karl Rove.

If you condemn swift boat (and I do) and think Ann

Comments

Totally agree

[chaibacca]

I've been on Move On's mailing list for years, and I have watched them become increasingly bold during that time and decreasingly intelligent. They have moved from a "Democracy Now" type of advocacy into the realm of Michael Moore, and it is definitely time for people to wake up and stop the funding. The last thing Democrats need as a whole is to develop a full array of cheap, dirty propaganda to rival the likes of Coulter, Hannity, O'Reilly, Savage, etc. I tend to think that resisting the instinct to fight fire with fire is a Liberal value.

Re: Totally agree

[hserus]

True enough. And it is something I wish moveon - as well as even loonier left political action groups like, say, truthout.org, would understand.

ps: You might like this, to put my remarks about goodmail in context .. summarizing a long argument I had with the EFF's Danny O'Brien on politech.

http://www.circleid.com/post/eff_use_of_propaganda_karl_rove/

Propaganda is just what these guys are doing - dressing it up as political action is just spin. I don't think he liked my pointing out that Mein Kampf had some words that described their "campaign" to a T :)