Freaking Myself Out

[gfish]

This is technically analysis, but far too silly to post to midint.

Recently a poll was released which indicated that 1/3 of Americans believe that we have found WMDs in Iraq, and a bit under 1/4 believe that the Iraqis used WMDs during the war. This poll got suspiciously little coverage and I really should have posted about it before.

Today I was pondering these results while doing dishes, and I realized something rather disturbing. To think that WMDs have been found or were used puts you in an fundamentally different reality than the one I live in. There is just no way to reconcile my reality with one were any sane, minimally informed person could believe such things. It would take an active effort to phase-shift into this alternate reality. A reality completely shaped by the desires of suits, shadowy figures who want to use the people in their thrall to increase their own power. In short, 1/3 of America took the blue pill. They woke up in their bed and believed whatever they wanted to believe.

Comments

[velvetknife.livejournal.com]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/wright0617.jpg

[callmem.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to take a more charitable view of that poll, namely that most of those people misunderstood the question and were saying that WMD's had been found in Iraq years ago by UN inspectors (true), and that Saddam had used them in earlier conflicts (like with Iran). Of course, this is probably just my fervent desire to not live in a world populated by idiots speaking. I've got a similar rationalization for the poll results from a couple of years ago where 10% of the respondants said they thought the sun revolves around the earth.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

There is a copy of the poll here (http://pipa.org/OnlineReports/Iraq/Iraqqaire_5_03.pdf). I'm not a statistician or anything, but it seems pretty clear to me.

[ex-digitalis869.livejournal.com]

There is just no way to reconcile my reality with one were any sane, minimally informed person could believe such things.

You know, i say this to myself every fucking day. Only not about the war.

It's my contention that many people don't live in the real world in some or most aspects of their lives.

[doctorpepper.livejournal.com]

I'm a little more optimistic -- I think part of the problem, if the poll wasn't more detailed than the way I saw it reported, is that "weapons of mass destruction" was repeated so many times it just became a buzzphrase -- and it was never very descriptive or useful to begin with. I mean, "mass" destruction as opposed to, what, a broadsword?

[xmurf.livejournal.com]

As opposed to weapons of volume destruction. Really, though, when you think about it, the only weapons that involve destroying mass (well, converting it to energy, which is as close as you can get) would be nukes... :)

[xmurf.livejournal.com]

Yes, but all the mass going in comes out as mass, and all the enery coming out went in as energy, so mass has been conserved...

[gfish.livejournal.com]

I misread your original comment. I suck.

[xmurf.livejournal.com]

Just remember:

Matter cannot be created nor destroyed, nor may it be returned without a receipt.

[doctorpepper.livejournal.com]

Weapons of Mass. destruction! Employed by vicious New Hampshire residents angry over something to do with sales tax.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Well, if YOU stepped on a sales tack you'd be cheesed off, too.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

No no, weapons just for destroying that state.

Since it's still there, they were clearly not used...

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I was talking to The Girl about this today, since if anything she's even more upset about this. She mentioned that at work she'd been talking about this and people were saying "well, didn't the papers say they discovered a lab that could be used for making chemical and biologic weapons?" Which of course they did -- if you went to any university anywhere you could do the same -- and from that to assuming "they WERE" is a very short mental step, pushed along by the Administration and not (yet) debunked or even discussed much in the mass media, to my knowledge.