Red-Blue Biases and Misinformation

Salon.com posted an article by Alex Henderson, titled: States That Mooch Off The Federal Government Partner. The article listed ten so-called red states that receive more federal dollars than paid out. This argument has often been used to prove that Republican economics don't work. I take offense that free market practices are attached only to republicans, but that's another argument.

Let's first ask where red and blue labels originated. The red label is less simpler as it's the color used for the enemy on a military strategy map, at least according to the New York times. Some think it might have been an attempt to associate republicans with communists. Attaching colors and symbolism to movements is a common tactic. That make sense if we use history's reference to the red menace, the Soviet Union. The blue state monicker came about because of geographic location. Most blue states are located along the coast, especially Pacific blue states. It was during the 2000 election that states got an official color designation because of how they voted in the presidential election.

The War on Monsanto

Most days I get at least one tweet or Facebook post telling me about the evils of Monsanto and GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms ). It usually accompanies a link to one of the conspiracy sites. When I research something I look for education websites or journalist I trust. I have spent the past decade trying to learn as much as possible about climate change. I must admit that I haven't put as much time into researching Genetically Modified Organisms. I do try to understand enough to know if the foods I'm eating are killing me. I'm sure most things we do in life affect life span in some way.

The one thing we know for certain is that people are living longer than ever. We also know that is mostly due to hygiene, medical care, home environment, and an abundance of food. I'm sure most of us learned in history about the 1930's dust bowl. That was when a large portion of the plains states were trapped in cloud of dust because of bad farming techniques and a drought.

A dust bowl of today is much less likely, not because there aren't droughts, but because of better farming techniques and drought resistant crops. Some of those crops are a result of hybridization and some from genetic modification. Because of hybridization and genetic modifications we can grow far more food per acre than in the dust bowl era.

NSA spying—The modern Panopticon

A panopticon was a prison design created by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century. The design was circular and allowed for prisoners to be in view at all times. His design allowed for the eliminations of bars and locks. Bentham saw this form of imprisonment as mind on mind control. New prisons of today sometimes use the panopticon design.

There was an outcry about Bentham's design because the prisoner never had privacy. Today we monitor prisoners 24/7 using CCTV cameras. Some still argue that watching people 24 hours a day is not healthy and possibly abuse. Today's prisons go even farther by placing RFIDs on prisoners so that if one wanders into an area off limits an alarm will activate.

Today we are living in a panopticon world. We have the NSA doing 24/7 surveillance of our communications. This isn't something new. It has come to light the NSA monitored notables such as Martin Luther King and Mohamed Ali. They weren't spied on because it was believed they were potential terrorists – it was simply because they spoke openly about their political beliefs.

The Progressive Federal Reserve

The Fed was created to control the economy, which is a socialist mentality. They feel that they can take the ups and downs out of the normal economic cycle. Eventually the progressives got their opportunity to test their theory. In 1929 we began the great progressive Utopia. Roosevelt did what the progressives wanted; they almost eliminated the middle class. That left only the rich and the poor. FDR was hailed a hero because he provided the jobs in which he stole from the people to begin with. It was only death that kept FDR from becoming dictator.

It was only until the end of ww2 in which taxes were dramatically lowered that the country climb out of the depression created by the progressive’s Utopia, but the Fed remained. Enter 2007 and we watched, as the fed seemed to weekly lower the prime rates in an effort to maintain a strong economy, all the while the great housing bubble created by the progressives began to leak. In 2009 that bubble burst and the Fed dropped lending rates to near zero.