What? You don’t want to increase taxes on the RICH? Why are you against teachers and policemen! You must hate children! You must not care if women get raped on street corners! What about the millions of homeless people, the polluted rivers and the poor endangered snail darters! You want dirty air and dirty water for our children! Oh, you are so hateful!
The sad thing is the average guy and gal on the street are incapable of thinking deeply enough to see through an obvious RED HERRING (a statement or clue intended to distract from the real issue). For generations now our schools have taught children to nev
er question authority or cause any kind of conflict. We must get along with each other, not be judgmental. If you disagree it could be viewed as (here it comes, the new psycho-babble buzzword du jour) BULLYING! Break out the ritalin!
If it sounds warm and fuzzy, or green – it must be good for us.
The Red Herring has been a favorite arrow in the quiver of the Left forever, it seems. Decades ago I lived in a small city that had a mosquito problem. Whenever the city council wanted more money, they would always say “we will have to cut back on our mosquito spraying this summer if we don’t get more funds”. They knew that nobody would care if they couldn’t afford that 17th secretary at city hall, or if there was to be one fewer bike trail. But mosquitos? We hate them! Here’s more money, take all you need!
School districts use this tactic religiously. If you oppose any request for funds, you obviously hate children – even if the money is used to buy another $600,000 cruiser bus with video screens on each seat for the tennis team. You are not allowed to question where the money goes. Just keep forking it over, stupid. A fellow blogger, Barbara Rush, makes a similar observation here.
I wish I had a solution, a way to get through to the can’t-thinkers. All I can offer is Margaret Thatcher’s overused quote: “The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Tom Balek, Rockin’ On The Right Side
“Tax the rich, feed the poor, ’til there ain’t no rich no more” – I’D LOVE TO CHANGE THE WORLD – Ten Year After
Rockin' On The Right Side 
A great post Tom! The schools have the red herring tactic down to an art form. Read my blog “END OF THE YEAR GOLD” to see what the Helena School District is doing with their money.
Have you guys heard of the Delphi Technique? I stumbled upon it and I am convinced that this is how our public officials are railroading taxpayers into believing they have a say in the outcome of programs through the guise of input at public meetings. Our school administrators, planning and development groups, commissions, are using this on us and we need to learn how to fight back appropriately.
I think by this time EVERY administrator has had training in the Delphi and other similar tools that serve to control and eliminate parents and members of the community; there is too much money and power at stake for schools not to. It is imperative that the general public believe that this program is THEIRS! They thought it up! If people believe that the program is theirs, they will support it.
I found on Youtube entitled: “Exposing the Delphi Technique in Public Meetings” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zpA1althjo
If you have 13 minutes to spare — it’s well worth watching. It involves a meeting that was done in California. I bet you dollars to donuts that if you watch this video — you”ll see the same things going on in your community.
I think we all need to start taping these, so called public meetings, and create our own video to post on the web!
Thanks Judy, I have been curious about how our “leadership” groups continue to get led to slaughter. Now we know.
“Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.”—George Bernard Shaw