"Freedom" - Classic American BS

Where do I start? Ever since 9/11 we cannot escape hearing the word “terrorism” accompanied by “freedom” in every damn speech. It’s the excessive use of “freedom” that particularly pisses me off. All the sudden, Bush and his gang seem to think of themselves as freedom police, spreading the seeds of democracy in countries with either a high oil reserve, or of some strategic significance. Meanwhile ignoring other, more dangerous countries *cough* South Korea *cough* to go ahead with whatever they wish to do.

What bothers me even more, is the parrot-like American public, who repeats those words, as if they came from the bible. Eman posted a great abstract of an article on the usage of words by the Amercians/Israelis in order to influence the public, subconsciously, in a certain way. The use of “freedom falls into this same category.

As a simple case study, let’s take Iraq, and the subsequent freedom gained by Iraqi’s post the American invasion. So now, instead of people feeling “free” to go about their normal lives, they have to be careful not to go into militant territory avoid leaving their house during certain times of the day, not to mention the numerous road blocks the American army sets up everywhere, restricting Iraqis’ movement . I have seen this image over and over again on many news stations. The image depicts an Iraqi civilian putting his hands over his head, creeping slowly towards an American guard, who goes on to search him. Is this the American idea of freedom?

Some may say, but the Iraqi’s can now elect a new president, so they have political freedom, and to that I say Bullshit. Electing a puppet doesn’t count as freedom, electing a president with no power isn’t freedom, electing under occupation is certainly not freedom.

So just about where do I hear freedom? I will start with “freedom fries” which was America’s retaliation against the opposition of France against the war. I will not dive too deeply into why “freedom fries” sounds pathetic, since it should be obvious enough.

Recently while I was approaching one of the company vehicles I noticed that the Jeep Liberty (Liberty here being another overused American term) was the “Freedom Edition.” Yes my friends, even Jeeps are now patriotic. Ironically enough, while driving the Jeep I was cutoff by a gulf war veteran (a bumper sticker told me so) who happened to have another bumper sticker which cleverly read “freedom doesn’t come for free: support our troops.” Arrogance at its best…

Most recently, this morning while reading the news on CNN I saw that they unveiled the new design for the new World Trade Centre. So what was it called? Sadly, “The Freedom Tower.”

Are we ever going to hear the end of it? Where might it appear next? Only time could tell!

Technorati Tags: freedom, American freedom, media manipulation