Monthly Archives: October 2014

Politics, Poverty In America, Unemployment In America

Welfare In America Is Almost Nonexistent!

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Photo from Library Of Congress

Welfare In America Is Almost Nonexistent!

One of the biggest misconceptions and disinformation campaigns that exists in America is a never ending belief shared by many Americans that there are “all these people on welfare who sit around getting paid for doing nothing”.  Those of us who are socially conscious, compassionate people who have taken the time to get the correct information about what the lives of people are like who are on welfare in America know that being poor in America is not a position anyone would want to be in.  In spite of that fact many middle class Americans who have fallen into being among the long-term unemployed because of the great recession are shocked to find that they do not have the safety net that they thought they were paying for all these years with the taxes they have paid when they were working.

It turns out it has been a great illusion.  The systematic right wing bashing that has been taking place in America over the course of decades has taken its toll on the American poor and is now ravaging the lives of those who were formerly middle class Americans.  The propaganda term for this has been for decades “Welfare Reform”.  I myself have asked the question, “How long can conservative politicians keep on talking about welfare reform?”  How can they keep reforming welfare over and over again decade after decade? Just as politicians all hopped on the band wagon of wanting to say they had helped to author “the toughest get tough on crime legislation” making it difficult for judges to be able to do their job correctly in handing out sentences corrupt politicians who have no other issue to run on keep talking about people being “paid to do nothing”.

Here in California if someone becomes one of the long-term unemployed and applies for “assistance” from the county social services department they will find that all they will get is $194 a month in food stamps. To do this they cannot have much in a bank account.  They can get $93 in cash assistance but if they make even that amount from some source of income then there is no cash assistance.  Food stamps, also known as EBT, can only be used for food and not soap, toilet paper, tissues, etc.  A single person can only get $300 for rent and only if the person who is renting agrees to accept that amount for rent.  The money has to be paid directly to the person being rented from.  If a person reports getting any other income at all it will be deducted from the cash benefit and the rent. So if a person gets $100 in that month there is no cash benefit and the social services department will only give the person who is charging rent $200.  All of the $100 has to go to make up the difference in rent.

How do people live you may ask?  That is what a lot of people who were once middle class working Americans are asking.  The fact is that the truly poor understand the system.  The middle class find themselves in a dilemma.  Any loan they may get from family has to be reported and is considered income.  So if family helps with rent there is no food stamps, no cash assistance and no subsidizing of the rent payment.  This means those who understand the system know they have to stick together with other people who all live together in a household so one will say they are renting for the $300.

Clothing-Shoes-Accessories-Secondhand-Market__IMG_8691_cr-348x480Photo by publicphoto.org

Under this system it is painfully obvious that welfare mainly exists in California for immigrant farm workers who work seasonally.  In this system then big agribusiness that depends on migrant workers is being subsidized by the tax payers so it can make its huge profits.  A person does not have to be a legal resident to get food stamps or to apply for a family member such as their own child.  This of course is so that people will not go hungry in this “great” country or go without healthcare.  This is a good thing but some people know how to earn money that is not reported and that is another way that they are able to survive.  The social services system in effect turns honest people into committing welfare fraud just to survive.  Migrant workers can more easily evade reporting than the average middle class American could ever do.  Do people go hungry in America? Yes! More and more Americans do including veterans.  Are there not housing projects and housing assistance for poor people?  Yes, but this is primarily for low-income working and retired people who pay very low rent.  When an immigrant worker lives in a housing project but works as a maid in a luxury hotel this means that corporations that make huge profits are the real money makers from social services, not the poor.

If a long-term unemployed, middle class American has no more unemployment payments and has a minor child in the household will they get help from social services to stay in their home, have food and cash assistance?  No! They have to be reduced to absolute poverty.  People like this have to move in with a family member or live in a vehicle such as a motor home.

The Republicans and Democrats both have political motives for keeping the myth alive that there is a welfare state in America.  For the Republicans it is a way to stay elected by telling the American people they will kick people off of welfare to save them tax money. For the Democrats it is an illusion that America is a compassionate, progressive, modern democracy that takes care of its people. Neither of the two major political parties want the American people to know what a mess they have made of this “great” country.

 

 

 

 

Media Analysis, Politics

READERS DIGEST AND THE VIETNAM WAR

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book-1371887441RUpPhoto by George Hodan

 

READERS DIGEST: PART TWO
READERS DIGEST AND THE VIETNAM WAR

When I was a little boy in the nineteen-sixties my mother always had a subscription to Readers Digest. Every issue of Readers Digest had at least one section if not more than one in different places in the magazine known as,”Humor in Uniform” which featured humorous anecdotes and jokes about military life. Readers Digest, also, had articles concerning the Roman Catholic Church such as articles about the American Archbishop, the Pope and about priests. Readers Digest, also, had sections with religious humor about priests and ministers. During this post World War II period I suppose it only seemed natural for Readers Digest to have humor about military life especially since with the Korean war as well many American men and women had served or were serving in the military.

Like the vast majority of Americans in the early sixties I did not even know that a country existed called Vietnam. When rumors started spreading because of families having sons who were in combat and even being killed in Vietnam the American government echoed by the mass media claimed there were only American military advisers over there and the US military was not actively involved in combat. Later as more information kept coming back from Vietnam via the soldiers themselves who were over there the American government and the American mass media finally admitted that American soldiers were involved in front line combat. As thoughtful observers of the current war in Iraq point out that when there is a war there is another war going on over the control of information and the control of the minds of the people, so it was then during the Vietnam war only with different strategies. At first reporters were not allowed into the combat zones in Vietnam and when they finally were allowed American opinion about the war started to change.

As an idealistic, young boy who had a scholarly nature my concern for all the problems in the world led me to wanting to read about the Vietnam war and understand what was really going on there. Since Readers Digest ran so many articles about the Vietnam war I read volumes in Readers Digest about the war. It wasn’t until the 1980s when I found an amazing book called,”Cold War America”, by Lawrence S. Whittner that I finally read the truth about the Vietnam war. It was then that I became fully aware that everything I had read in Readers Digest about the Vietnam war was all lies. The lies were obviously on purpose.

no-warPhoto by X posid

It is a sad commentary that the lies in Readers Digest mirrored those of more than one American government administration with both Democrats and Republicans alike and was in effect all that most Americans really believed about the war. It is obvious the earliest victory of the war was getting so many people to live and die for a lie. As a young boy when I read Readers Digest’s version of the war I was lead to believe that the war started because North Vietnam invaded a sovereign country, South Vietnam, for no other reason than to spread Communism throughout the world. We were taught then and Readers Digest confirmed it that according to Communist philosophy Communism can’t work unless the entire world is under a Communist system therefore Communists are dedicated to conquering the entire world. We were taught then and the officials of the American government informed us, also, about the “domino principal”. According to them the “domino principal” meant that if one country in Southeast Asia fell to communist rule then another would and then another with the final object being the spread of communism all over the world.

When I read “Cold War America” by Lawrence S. Whittner I learned that in fact at the beginning of the Vietnam War North Vietnam was not even involved. In fact North Vietnam did not even want to be involved in the war. The war began when South Vietnamese people started an organized resistance movement to free their country of foreign corporations and governments that were stealing the natural resources of South Vietnam and exploiting the South Vietnamese people in the process. Among the many aberrations of the foreign nationals in Vietnam including the French was keeping the Vietnamese people in total poverty while making massive profits so much so that young Vietnamese girls were forced into prostitution, a sex trade that still goes on to this day in much of Southeast Asia. The foreign nationals, including America, kept this system of exploitation in place by supporting a right wing, dictatorship government in collusion with organized crime.

The organization that was engaged in an armed conflict with the corrupt Saigon government and the foreign nationals was called the South Vietnamese Liberation Army. The French were tired of the never ending war in Vietnam and wanted to get out. That is when the American military became actively involved in combat. From the beginning of the US military involvement in the war the American Air Force started bombing Vietnamese villages indiscriminately killing South Vietnamese people who were not even members of the South Vietnamese Liberation Army and even killing Vietnamese people who were supporters of the Saigon government. This caused many Vietnamese people to turn against the Saigon government and the foreign nationals and join the South Vietnamese Liberation Army. The South Vietnamese Liberation Army in fact was not Communist at all but there were Communists among them. Eventually the carnage and the savagery of the Saigon government, the American military and its allies made the country of North Vietnam feel compelled to enter the war and Communist China said it would provide supplies and support to liberate the Vietnamese people from the oppressors.

At the beginning I mentioned the humor in uniform and the religious references in Readers Digest. I did not mention yet the anecdotes about military chaplains who are members of religious clergy such as rabbis, priests and protestant ministers who are military officers. Obviously Readers Digest as a publication has a purpose. There is a reason why it tells brazen, political lies while tying religion and military together. Those of us who are knowledgeable about propaganda techniques understand that media outlets in collusion with political factions have created what we call “misguided patriotism” which is something people cling to with religious fervor. I am always trying to explain to people that there is a real patriotism that is loyalty to the country and the people not to any government. When people consider it to be unpatriotic to question, to criticize and to choose not to participate in a war they are part of a system of fascism unwittingly.

Politics, Unemployment In America

Stories Of The Long-Term Unemployed In America

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Illustration by Petr Krotochvil

As the November 2014 elections come closer with elections for the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate as well as important propositions for American voters to vote on no one single issue seems as important as the plight of the long-term unemployed in America who are victims of the Great Recession that fell in 2008. This single issue could in fact be the tipping point for the outcome of the elections more than any other.  It is amazing that both of the major political parties are avoiding mention of it as well as the media that is in bed with them because this issue points out the failures of the American government to turn the economy around and bring prosperity.  I could go on about the importance of it and how it is related to the other important issues being discussed with these elections coming up but it is better if I let the long-term unemployed speak for themselves.

Stories Of The Long-Term Unemployed

“My dad, S, killed himself March 16, 2009 because he ran out of money and could not find work. My whole family had been devastated by the economy. He was 61 years old and could not take it anymore. He could not figure out how to keep the electric on, buy food, or keep a roof over his head. A day before his electric was to be shut off, and 2 weeks away from eviction, my dad took the hardest walk of his life. He left a note on the dining room table for my sister and I. His suicide letter said ‘I love you. I had to do this. I ran out of money. I wish you both luck in your lives’. He left the door unlocked with the door key left in the lock. He carefully laid out two suits for us to pick from to bury him in,”

“ I was let go from cash a job I had. I am really upset. And I have to move cause I was finally evicted. At least I found a place, but now with no job. My son is 22 and has Lupus and many other health issues. He was denied disability. We have to fight it. You tell me how  this is fair??”

“The problem with our system is that there is NO help until you are homeless. and then not much at all I have went from 6 figures to well below poverty and still don’t qualify for a damn thing.
They kicked all men off of general assistance for the most part and now they have women qualifying for less and less food assistance and cash assistance goes down for every extra child.
soon there will be no safety net programs at all. If I were in canada they would be giving me disability while they find out exactly what is wrong with me. I have a friend from detroit with two little kids that has been fighting for disability for over 5 years. She has MS and they KNOW THAT! Its proven!
My friends and family in canada shake their heads when they hear these stories. They do pay more % in taxes but do you know what? thier wages are MUCH MUCH higher! All of my family in Canada are living the american dream….. I am a man that has paid into these programs for 35 years. I have played by all of the rules. Im suppose to be on a very strict diet or I WILL DIE!!!!
They offered me,,,,,,  15 stinking dollars per month, I literally feel betrayed by my country.”

“My name is Rocco, and like Trista, I too have been suffering from the loss of federal benefits. While my wife goes to work, I’ve been staying at home to conserve fuel. I’ve been losing weight from eating less, so my family has more on their plates. It feels like the government and big business expect more and more while trying to give back as little as possible. Soon my internet connection will be shut off and since most companies don’t offer paper applications, how will I find work then? Walking around for miles a day, asking for an application that may or may not be available?”

“Thanks to sequestration and the ripple effect of the gridlock in congress…. the small R&D company I worked for had to make difficult cutbacks. I was one of the those laid off. Was let go at the end of the month, so had no extension of health care benefits (employer neglected to send COBRA), 1 child, single mother so no other income. Have been constantly looking for 6 months, spending most of my day looking and rewriting my resume for jobs. Never hearing back . I’ve received about 1 interview per 25 applications sent in. ”

“I’m educated with a variety of skills, but I’m about to become under employed, simply because my benefits are running out this week and I have not heard back from the numerous suitable jobs I want. I need to survive.
Now I have to struggle to find part time or something with a schedule to support my single mom lifestyle. I won’t be able to afford daycare on that kind of salary. Unsure if I’ll be able to afford my apartment I live in.
Most jobs on the market pay too low or have bad hours, and by too low, I’m not talking about expecting 100k jobs. I’m talking about 30k a year is suitable. So too low means a salary below that.
For someone with a bachelor’s degree and 20 years of work experience.”

“My state unemployment expired in the middle of battle with cancer. I appealed to the state of WA. They paid me one week of compensation in 2013; then assigned me to federal emergency unemployment compensation which, as you know, has not gone anywhere.”

“I know at least 10 people who have graduated from college in past yr or more and can’t find regular good paying jobs….some are delivering pizza, etc.”

” I don’t see any mention of an extension for unemployment benefits in 2014 for those who are still out of work and out of benefits, like my son, who is in the age range listed. We’re starving over here. It would be nice to see some articles that take this into account since there are a whole hell of a lot of us out here who can’t sleep without worrying about how to eat tomorrow. No one wants to talk about that reality.”

“The company I work for closed at the end of February. My unemployment insurance lasted 18 weeks. I am in a very bad place and need help right now and there is no place for me to get it. My unemployment was $158 a week and now I don’t even have that. I have gotten zero interviews for any of the jobs I have applied for and I am a 52 year old college graduate.”

“Many unemployed in philly and south jersey. Avoid Atlantic City NJ as it is one big crime scene! Only going to get much worse with the 5th casino closing in 9 months. Meanwhile, Camden NJ, with the highest crime rate, has a senator heading up a foreign relations committee?”

“I totally am convinced at this point that the politicians blocking the chances to receive temporary assistance to the long term unemployed are not for their constituents who are affected by this misfortune through no fault of their own, who have tried so very hard constantly & vigilantly faxing, calling, emailing & physically, until the benefits that made it possible to do all that stopped. How can a perspective lead or future employer get in contact if all services are terminated! ! These Politicians are only looking out for their deeper pockets and for the Wealthy who fill them!…”

“The rate of the calls has stopped because they’re telling people to stop claiming the benefits in some States.  My goodness, Who’s paying these people not to report the real truth.”

“I was laid off in March and soon my California benefits will be toast. I’ll be ok for quite awhile still but I feel bad for those who’ve got to raise families and the loss of their benefits means no income. So then they’ll just end up on welfare. Not seeing how that saves anyone any money. Just taking money from one budget instead of another.”

“There is no welfare for the middle class in California. All you get is food stamps and even that was cut back on so it’s not enough to survive on.”

“My vehicle has over $3000 in repairs. I have LITERALLY NO INCOME! The only reason why I still have peace is because I pray and put my trust in the Lord. I must say that He has come through for me miraculously! I know I should be panicking by now, but I have this “everything will be ok” attitude. This unexplainable peace!”

“They don’t care one bit of our struggles. They claim there are more jobs, but they have taken all the good ones and in return they created low income jobs. You can’t make it on a low income job. It’s not possible to survive. They still count that as a job??? Yes they do…”

“there are over 7 million and counting in GA so that is a big issue for GA and in most areas the pay is very very low but apts high because it’s good for them since the housing industry is bad. I see more of middle class filing bankruptcy and at food banks”

“I worked for 25 years at the same company and was laid off with a few others earlier this year. My benefits are about to be gone but I’ve got other funds put away that I was hoping not to touch at this stage in my life. I’m 56. Unlikely I will find something comparable to what I was doing. I was offered a greeter position at Walmart the other day. I said thanks and just started laughing. I feel for those people who are trying to support and provide for their families.”

“Of course the un employed number continues to go down. I have now reached the one year mark and am no longer able to file a weekly report. When contacting the UE office they advised me even though I was still seeking employment not be able to file a report. I asked why not as I was not employed at this time. I was advised
after one year they no longer track anyone who has not found a job as they system is not large enough to maintain the high volume of un employed. Therefore you no longer exist and have become no one. I am 56yrs of age and let go from my previous job for no fault of my own. I got replaced with a young in experienced person for 2/3rds of my wage. Despite the fact I was a salary employee who worked 14 hr days 6&7 days week and did not take vacation time because there
was no one to fill in in my absence so everything piled up if you were out. Now they have a person who has a family and a life who  struggles to work an 8 hr day and only 5 days a week. They are now looking to hire another person to keep up with the work load..”

“I am a 58 yoa, multi degreed professional, including a doctorate, who was unemployed for more than two years. In sheer desperation I markedly “dumbed down” my resume, dyed my hair, thought like the Marine I am and managed to land a job mildly related to my field paying about a third of what I used to make. I have to swallow my pride each and evey work day and essentially function at the level I am expected to. There are always choices and sometimes one just has to bear the unbearable. My heart goes out to all my brothers and sisters who are similarly situated and have yet to have the luck I had to find even this job.
This is a structual change and much of the population is in the cold hard light of day is surplus. Yet we will not simply vanish and will continue to struggle to survive as long as we draw a breath……….”

“I am 57. I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in English before I got married and started a family. As my children got to school age, I went back to school for nursing. After my husband died 17 years ago, I worked my way up the corporate ladder to the executive level in the healthcare industry. I was also a certified childbirth educator who taught at our local hospital for years. Then I got my Master’s degree in Corporate Communication. I am a freelance writer and I also started my own business, helping people with their career development.
But after I was laid off two years ago from my full time job, I could not find work. I sent out hundreds of resumes with no responses. My consulting business dwindled, as people could not afford the luxury of a career coach. I ended up helping people who were out work for no charge. It was bittersweet to watch these people find work when I couldn’t.
I have MS, which has worsened dramatically since I was laid off. I can now no longer walk and I am too sick to work, which is what I want to do more than anything. I am losing everything I worked so hard to build. When my unemployment ran out two months ago, I literally had no income. I scraped by somehow and luckily was just approved for disability. On disability I will have an annual income that is less than one fifth of what I have made in the past and places me just above the poverty level.
I still cannot believe it. If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone.”

“I’m 69, and can retire with a pension and social security. So why am I still working? My son is a recent college graduate who has yet to find a job (suprised?). For me to help him out I need to keep working. Sorry for some other young person who might step into my position, but now I am holding two households together.”

“This piece must re read in conjunction with the article about student debt. Even if we assume that many of these graduates will find gainful employment – admittedly, an assumption not borne out by reality – it is unlikely that they will provide any sort of boost for the economy because they, and their parents, will be paying student debt for the nexzt 10-15 years, further aggravating the cycle of decline.
Also, while it undoubtedly would be political suicide for the party in power to do so, it’s long past time that unemployment statistics included those who are no longer looking for work.”

” In 2009, I along with seven others were laid off from a private college in South Carolina. All over the age of 40, most over 50 and more than 50% women. In the years to follow more than a dozen others have been let go.
My immediate supervisor told me he was instructed to build a case against the highest paid employees of the department as we could be replaced by young employees in a year. Upon meeting with HR it was explained the termination was unfounded and had been changed to a layoff. The others I spoke to who had been cut told similar stories. There was no forewarning, no severance, just the call to the office at 4:30 on Friday.
Being over 50, it is incredibly difficult to find gainful employment, especially when the person you interview with is barely out of their teens. The assumption is that no one gets laid off from a college and we must have done something to deserve it. And since they have changed the termination to a layoff, they skirt the issues of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
In this case, a simple campus wide furlough of one day would have saved everyone’s jobs. But it wasn’t considered. Oddly enough, there was no moratorium on purchases of Ipad’s and Iphone’s for the administration.”

“i’ve been looking for a job over a year. No, Mitt Romney I have not been sitting on my duff playing tiddlywinks. I have applied for well over a thousand jobs. I have the spreadsheet to prove it. I have a top tier education and decent experience. I apply for jobs I’m underqualified for as well as overqualified for. I get interviews but no offers. I’m going to be 46 in la few weeks. I have no family and friends became scarce when I got laid off. Nina Simone was right when she said “nobody knows you when you’re down and out”. Suicide is always in the back of my mind which is sad because I don’t want to die but I cannot find a self-supporting job and I have zero support. I am completely alone. My confidence is at an all time low and my spirit is broken. Washington doesn’t care about people like me. Ageism is something that our government refuses to acknowledge let alone do anything about. My unemployment was slashed dramatically as a result of the sequester and I’m living on beans and rice now but at least my rent is paid. What happens if my unemployment expires and I still don’t have a self-supporting job and my rent is no longer paid and I lose my home? That’s easy. I kill myself.”

“I was trying to commit suicide two weeks ago but was stopped by police after one of my facebook friends called 911 after seeing my post. I was sent to a psychiatric ward for slightly more than a week and then was released a week later. I was out of job for almost two years despite my stellar work experience and credentials which include a STEM PhD and MBA from top universities. I had offered employers working for them for free for months just to prove my worth and yet no one was willing to take up my offer. I was excluded out by my age (mid 40s) and the length of my unemployment which I could never change. I was consumed by an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. I truly and still believe that my death will be the best solution for all. Although I do understand that my death will cause lots of agony for those who still care about me, yet I am the one who suffers 24/7 with no hope in sight while my loved one will suffer only in the short term (hopefully). I often think that if people like myself are intentionally ignored by the job market, what is the odds for the rest of the population? If I could not even make it in my 40s, what makes me thank I can survive in my 50s and so on? We obviously have an over population problem, I am willing to rid of myself for the sake of the social good, but will you?”

“Why aren’t people talking about age discrimination at a major level? I have been unemployed for more than five years. I have had training to add new skills to two degrees. Training and education mean nothing if no one will hire you. I live in a “right to work” state where corporations can do anything and government is in collusion in perpetrating this endemic discrimination …Companies aren’t afraid of older workers — they can and do anything they want. I have done everything a person can do to get a job and survive. I’m a woman alone and nobody cares. That’s why the suicides have gone up drastically.”

“People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs.
In the United States, the suicide rate, which had slowly risen since 2000, jumped during and after the 2007-09 recession. In a new book, we estimate that 4,750 ‘excess’ suicides — that is, deaths above what pre-existing trends would predict — occurred from 2007 to 2010. Rates of such suicides were significantly greater in the states that experienced the greatest job losses. Deaths from suicide overtook deaths from car crashes in 2009.” – This last quote is from: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/suicide-and-the-unemployed/

 

 

 

 

Media Analysis

MEDIA ANALYSIS: ABOUT READERS DIGEST

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MEDIA ANALYSIS: ABOUT READERS DIGEST

book-pagesPhoto by Mick Lissone

 

This is the first article to introduce this section called,”Media Analysis”.  Why is media analysis so important?  Because we have to learn to sort through the truth and lies in the information technology revolution that we are in the middle of right now in these historic times.  Are there people engaged in conspiracies to control the minds of the people because of their vested interests?  There is a war going on out there over the control of the minds of the people.  The way to protect yourself is to liberate yourself in your mind.  To do that you have to have knowledge.  Those who keep real knowledge from the people do so for a reason.  They want to manipulate you.  Call it cultural wars if you want to but that is only a part of it, although an important part.

ABOUT READERS DIGEST

Readers digest in the early seventies was the first magazine to use the word SEX in the title of an article on the cover of their magazine to get people’s attention and boost their magazine sales, a technique they still use to this day. Before it was considered to be poor taste to do so and was taboo among publishers. Readers Digest’s lead was quickly followed by other magazines and is now standard practice in the publishing industry. But why would such a conservative magazine as Readers Digest do this? The answer is strange indeed. Readers Digest had been losing sales and was on the brink of bankruptcy. This clever media ploy saved them. Does this seem amazing? After all Readers Digest is just a business right? Out to make money? It is clear from the content of Readers Digest, a seemingly harmless magazine, that there are vested interests that are extremely political to whom it was very important to keep this publication alive as I will explain.

What is the official, given reason and concept of Reader’s Digest? Why is it called Reader’s Digest? It is called Reader’s Digest because the official concept given by the magazine is that it is a place for people to go to keep up on their reading and what is going on in the world who do not have time to read all of the various, important publications out there to read. Many of the articles were already previously printed in other, well known publications. Hence the word, Digest, in the name. Another component in using the word, Digest, is that Reader’s Digest changes the articles for the given reason of condensing them so that the reader will have more time to read more articles. This seems harmless enough but the reality is Reader’s Digest in fact changes the articles to a particular political slant in the process of condensing them. We can call it for the time being a very conservative political viewpoint but there is certainly more to it. After all it gives readers a skewed view of what is going on in the world and a skewed view of what opinions are really being expressed in mainstream publications by changing the meanings of the articles.

flying-saucer4

Illustration from clipartlord.com

The only way to really explain the political implications of Readers Digest and the way it propagandizes people toward a certain world view and even perception of reality is to give examples.  The most interesting of these examples really gets the point across to begin to understand.

Back when I was a little boy in the sixties Readers Digest ran an article in seriousness that it would be hard to believe people took seriously.  It was a story about a black man named Barney and his white wife.  They were newlyweds and the wife was carrying Barney’s child.  They were traveling across country by car and at night while driving on a desert highway.  Barney and his wife were beamed up into a flying saucer.  The aliens who at that time were called extraterrestrials did tests on Barney’s white wife that were described in detail in Readers Digest.  Included in these tests was when the extraterrestrials stuck a long metal needle into the navel of Barney’s wife, the implication being that the test had something to do with her unborn child.  Barney and his wife were unharmed and after a few days on the spaceship were returned to their car in the desert.

Readers Digest did not try to explain what the meaning of the story was and what the aliens were trying to accomplish but this bizarre story just coincidentally was published at a time when there was a big controversy about mixed marriages as in a black person marrying a white person.  Even in church on Sundays our priests addressed this issue of mixed marriages more than once.  They said that the position of the Catholic church on mixed marriages was that it was not forbidden and people could be married in the Church who were of different races but the Catholic church did not recommend mixed marriage and discouraged it.  The reason given was that the Church was studying mixed marriages and was not sure yet if it was a good idea.

One would think that no rational person would have given credence to this unbelievable story in Readers Digest but one has to remember the times.  This was the mid sixties and world was an entirely different place than it is now.  In fact people everywhere were talking about this incredible story as if it were true.  The priests in church even included it in their sermons.  They as well as a lot of adults I heard talking about this were convinced that the extraterrestrials had performed the tests on Barney’s wife because they were concerned about mixed marriages.  Amazingly Readers Digest re-ran the exact same story again within a very short period of time with the exact same effect.  People everywhere were talking about it as if it were true and the priests included it in their sermons about mixed marriages.  Is it possible that a printed publication could have this kind of power over influencing how people think?  It is and that is what is scary.  Never has any news publication or book ever reported about Barney and his wife, who they are or what happened to them.  I suppose that isn’t important. The story in Readers Digest served its political purpose.