August 18, 2002
Peekaboo, I see you
There are some discussions taking place around the web about conspiracy theories and the latest kidnapping news.
Some sites that I have visited, actually think that the recent media coverage of child kidnappings, is a diversion, a distraction for the masses. To keep our minds off of the war on terrorism and Bush's mistakes and forget about Enron and the terrible economy.
They think that the media and the government, are in cahoots together to stop us from thinking about other things.
If the masses are so worried about kidnappings, they don't have/want to pay attention to what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And then there are some other groups, who think that child safety is going to come back and bite us in the ass someday.
What I'm talking about is when the police offer free child safety kits. They take your child's picture and fingerprints in the event that your child gets kidnapped or lost, they have current info on them.
These groups think that the police are tricking parents into fingerprinting their kids and the real truth is, they want EVERYONES fingerprints in order to keep track of all American citizens in th future.
Maybe I'm just not that paranoid yet.
Maybe I'd like to think that the government isn't doing this.
Maybe I like to live in ignorance and not know that our police and government and media is just pulling the wool over our eyes.
Posted by at August 18, 2002 07:50 AM
While I love a good conspiracy, I won't bite on this one, Kat. I see it as just plain copycat-ism. Unfortunate that it's happening, but it is.
What's more unfortunate is that the media is still ignoring many issues.
For instance, why have there been no arrests in the Enron debacle? You want a conspiracy, there's one swimming under the surface there.
I don't know, that first one sounds almost plausible. The number of kidnappings hasn't actually increased, it's just being covered more for some reason. The reason is most likely that parents are using the media more than they used to, and kidnappings have become the media topic du jour. (Like when apartheid was suddenly in the news all the time, then went away. Apartheid hadn't actually gone away, but the media gave the impression that it did by moving on to its next pet topic.)
Do I really think the government and the media are in cahoots on this? Nope. But I suppose anything is possible.
I don't think the tail is wagging the dog yet. Bush is too stupid to use the media (or spell it for that matter) but Cheney...he can actually speak in coherent sentences, he might be able to pull it off.
I personally believe that is the simplest explanation that is probably the correct one (Occam's razor) and the simplest explanation is ratings/sales. Sensationalism titillates and your average American is more apt to slow down to ogle a traffic accident than stop at a public library. I am amazed however as Scott points out, that Ken Lay has so far managed to escape arrest for his participation in the Enron debacle. Must be nice to be a close personal friend of the "president".
Wow, I forgot this was still online! Maybe it should be re-activated....
Nice blog, just wanted to say I found you through Google