These days one doesn’t know what will show up in one’s inbox . I still don’t know why on May 4, 2024, I was included in an email addressed to some 55 recipients. A Trump supporter wrote the lowing [text is unedited]:
I resoundingly applaud Mr. Trump’s efforts to end the sending our hard earned tax dollars to both NPR and PBS stations.
I used to listen to NPR radio every morning and evening on my drive to and from work. No more. Their adoption of radical far left propaganda alarmed me and made me question our continued financial support of such ‘indoctrination.’ Time after time they interviewed only leftist commentators, portraying them as representative of public thought. Over and over they would demonize anyone who had opposite opinions on critical social and political beliefs. PBS television has gone down the same track, with hardly anyone reflecting our long established values.
Since my unexpected trip to ZZZZ some years back I have been quite conscious of subtle but very real propaganda in ‘reporting’ news. In print and on air I saw the communists use clever and cunning methods to alter news so as to promote Marxist/communist philosophies and far left social programs.
“Radical” does not completely describe the changes we saw pushed during the Biden presidency. Fortunately, I had read the political platform of the party controlling far left Democrats prior to the 2020 election. So I was prepared for what eventually unfolded during the ensuing four years.
Using public tax funds to finance and promote libertine, radical, far-left Marxist values and ideas simply goes too far for most of us. From the early populist Tea Party and for the last number of years I have been encouraged by the upsurge in traditional common sense values; the kinds of values taught in our families and churches. Disharmony and libertine perversions of thoughts and actions are evil by their nature. Promotion of such ‘progressive’ values is evil made manifest.
Thank you President Trump and Vice President Vance.
XXXX
To which I responded:
Dear XXXX:
Your letter commending Trump for his decision to stop funding PBS and NPR will no doubt find approval by many of the 24/7 FOX NEWS viewers.
And your use of cliches and name calling (radical left propaganda, indoctrination, leftist commentators demonize, critical social beliefs long established values, cunning methods to promote Marxist/Communist philosophies, left social programs, Radical, far left, libertine, far-left Marxist disharmony and libertine perversion of thoughts and actions)
to get your point across is, sadly, the same rhetoric used by Sanders, Trump, et. al. The assault on the Smithsonian (a repository of everything Ameriana), the Kennedy Center, universities, and law firms (shaking them down for 1 billion dollars’ worth of free legal service), and retribution against the media and government employees are but the first steps into a Fascist descent. Have you noticed how Trump uses the victim card, trying to convince Americans that everyone is “taking advantage of America”? And he is always the prime victim.
Character in a national leader is important; I wonder, XXXX, if you were ever bothered by his bragging about walking up to women and grabbing them by their privates and claiming that they enjoyed such ever bothered you? Worst yet, in full view of scores of people at a nationally televised press conference, Trump brutally and heartlessly verbally assaulted and mimicked (voice and pathetic gestures) a disabled reporter who was merely trying to earn a living by doing his job. Only a callous man would do such a thing. And what an example does this set the younger school-attending generation? [The first is an abominable insult to womanhood and the dignity of every grandmother, mother, sister, daughter, and wife. And the second is a blatant crime against God himself.]
As for NPR and PBS, just think of all the worthy programs, covering myriad subjects, whether they be historical, educational, environmental, cultural, or otherwise, will cease to inform, entertain, educate and help us understand and appreciate our history (warts and all). Above all, many of these programs on the chopping block teach us what it means to humane and human.
Should you have the time, you might want to read, One Nation Under God, by Kevin Kruse, or The Struggle to Shape America, by Frances FitzGerald.
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