Protesting, yet, uninformed - what to do about it?

[Sydnie]

I was on my way to work after a doctor's appointment today and I happened to see a local anti-war protest taking place at a busy intersection. Being prepared for any impromptu protest, I pulled over, whipped out a sign from the back of my van (Surge Them Home) and joined the group on the corner.

I struck up a conversation with a guy somewhat close to me about the war. He asked me why I had stopped and I started to explain my view point to him. He told me he was out there because he has "people" in this war and this war had to stop. One topic led to another and before I knew it, he was blaming the whole Iraq war on the UN and the weapon inspectors, insisting that the UN had announced that they HAD found weapons in Iraq. I listened a bit more and he was convinced that "we had done what we should have in Iraq, after 9/11 and all, and that now these men and women (as he had a female family member there too) needed to come home.

I was dumb founded. I reminded him that it was Colin Powell that had lied to the UN, not the UN lying to us. The guy standing right next to me agreed with me and tried to convince this guy that it was us that had led the UN down the wrong path. I eventually asked if they had ever heard about PNAC and even the guy who knew about Powell said he had never heard of them. I tried to explain PNAC as best as one can standing on a street corner with no visual materials to make connecting the dots easier. That led to "yeah, they had already attacked the towers when Clinton was there and he had his chance to get Osama and he blew it". Again, I tried to explain to him that Clinton had left Able Danger in place when he left, that Clarke had tried to tell Rice and got fired for it and brought up LIHOP or MIHOP. He began to get a bit agitated, saying that HIS government would never let that happen. I tried to tell him that his government actually HAD let it happen, brought up the PDB and the Downing Street Memo and added facts about PNAC again. He told me that I was wrong because that was not what the news he was hearing and reading was telling him. I told him that the clear answer to that was ... they lied to him.

I asked him if he had access to the internet and he said, yeah, he could get it at someone else's house. I told him to google PNAC, Able Danger, and Colin Powell and see what he read about all those things.

I thanked him for being out there, for trying to stop the war whatever his reasons were and I encouraged him to dig deeper and educate himself. He told me he didn't care what else they were into, he wanted this war to end. I rather forcefully (maybe more than I should have, but half awake today just didn't seem good enough) encouraged him to learn what else they were up to, because there is a whole country at stake once this war is over.

How can we go about educating those that are already somewhat on our side? How can we start to get the message out, educate the people, and effect real change without coming off like complete lunatics? Sometimes, I think I know too much ... others, I know I don't know nearly enough.

Should we, collectively, work on some sort of flyer or hand out that could be printed and passed out to get the people that see a little to see a lot more? Not a book, because Joe Six-Pack is not going to sit down and read a book ... but we might pique their interest with a page or two or three with a good time line that they can follow and a few good sites to back up those facts as a primer.

Just how do we break the spell and get them to care, even when they appear motivated already?

[MADem]

1. I have no idea. I swear, if you were the Tin Foil hat type, you'd wonder if this sort of shit that

has been cropping up lately, is actually a disinformation campaign, designed to make war protesters as a group look like a bunch of, dare I say, fucked up fringe flakes!

I say that with tongue in cheek, but damn, ya never know.

I never thought we'd be a nation that stacks naked prisoners in pyramids, or imprisons people wholesale in Cuba, either. I never thought we'd be a nation of airport shakedowns, no-fly lists, tapped phones, examined bank records, and all sorts of brutal and un-American activities. All in the name of "security" of course.

So even though it's a half-baked idea, well, this administration is pretty half-baked, too.

I don't even think the "Blame the UN" argument would sell on the crazed right. It doesn't sell on the left.

But there have been other woefully misinformed, historically ignorant protesters out and about lately, some of them on the Hill.

[Sydnie]

2. The disinformation thought breifly crossed my mind

I just re-watched Steal This Movie on Saturday so the thought wasn't that far from my mind today. If this didn't look like just a group of locals trying to do the right thing, I might agree with you and strap some foil tightly inplace.

I just don't think they have sought out enough info to be able to connect the dots, or even to know that some of the dots are out there begging to be noticed.