This is an article written by Richard Hofstadter for Harper's Magazine in 1964. Most likely it will annoy some of you but you probably will still find it interesting. It certainly is relevant today, moreso actually as the creation and speed of conspiracy theories has grown considerably. You may find as I did that it presents a sort of view from the outside looking in. Or maybe you will think it is a load of crap without a single profound thought in sight.
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."
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