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is where this could get real dangerous.
To borrow from the movie Casablanca, "I'm shocked, simply shocked !"....
Hypocrisy ? In politics..... immmmpossible!
Do we notice a PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR here ?
1. Claim to have the highest of ideals. Embrace the values of an open society. Blurbble on about the wonders of diversity. It all about the CONVERSATION, baby....
2. Dissenting opinion is safely ignored, dismissed, given no airtime, or drowned out in the orchestrated roar of the media machine.
3. New technologies permit new forums to come into being where new conversations dance with new possibilities.... tryannies and dictatorships always have had a difficult time with new communication technology, especially when they can't regulate THE CONVERSATION....
4. Politician/tyrant/dictator/TopDog can't confront the new conversation head on without looking like a flaming H.Y.P.O.C.R.I.T.E., so then proceeds to option B...
5. (desperately) Try to reframe the conversation as an affront to Our Sacred Values WITHOUT addressing the real motivations for the conversation... The former Soviet Union had this manouver elevated to the status of a near-religious ceremony.... anyone who published *samizdat* materials was not a freethinker or a brave dissident.... uh uhh, he was a Hooligan! And Hooliganism was an official crime ! Roughly defined as not agreeing with those in power...
Power Corrupts. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.