YouTube's been co-opted for nefarious purposes

I received an e-mail from a friend containing a link to a YouTube video that wasn’t named or described but had received NINE MILLION HITS, the message claimed, and was a MUST SEE! I was supposed to be working so naturally I clinked on it.

Turns out it was the most blood pressure-raising, off-putting, offensive, irresponsible, misleading anti-Obama video I’ve ever seen.

As I looked at images of the American flag, the bald eagle, armed, resolute soldiers, the Constitution, Tea Party signs decrying socialism and excessive taxation, and a number of obviously miserable individuals frowning and flashing thumbs down, a shrill female’s voice described how “we the people have stated resolutely that we reject your vision for our country” and “we the people have assembled across America resisting your efforts to subvert our constitution and undermine our liberty.”

The shrew went on to quote Dubya and Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson and spoke about how the time has come and our greatest treasure is freedom and Obama’s subjugation is not the kind of change we wanted or will accept and he has expanded government, violated our Constitution, confounded laws, seized private industry, destroyed jobs, perverted our economy, curtailed free speech, corrupted our currency, weakened our national security, endangered our sovereignty, shot J.R. Ewing, put the bop in the bop-sho-bop-sho-bop, let the dogs out, cut the cheese, stole the cookie from the cookie jar and whatever other really, really bad things you can imagine.

The video states that through generational theft, whatever that is, Obama’s robbing the unborn of opportunity. So our duty to our soldiers and ourselves is to treasure freedom enough to live up to it, whatever that means. The clearly constipated narrator warned the president to “dismiss us at your political peril” and declared that “we will not accept tyranny under any guise” and vowed to forever resist coercive government because Obama’s policy to redistribute the fruits of our labor is “statism” and will not be tolerated and patriots will not stand silent as he attempts to dismantle the greatest nation on earth.

It concluded with the promise that “we the people will defend our liberty and protect our beloved country and America’s exceptionalism will prevail,” followed by the obligatory “God Bless the United States of America!”

I watched it more than once, difficult as that was, because I wanted to count how many facts were hidden in the five minutes and nineteen seconds of what appeared to me to be claptrap and drivel. The answer: zero. Not one verifiable fact or genuine piece of information. The clip was full of clichés and platitudes and important-sounding phrases and serious-sounding allegations but was completely devoid of truth about the President of the United States and his policies.

Let me be clear: I’m not shy about criticizing Barack Obama. He’s disappointed me more than once. But I don’t think for a second that he’s trying to dismantle the greatest nation on earth or is a tyrant or has perverted our economy or weakened our national security or tried to undermine our liberty, whatever that means. I’m glad he’s in the Oval Office and I’m sad that humanoids like the 9,751 who “liked” this video are walking around, free to send trite, dishonest videos to anyone they want, free to pull a lever on a voting machine, free to spread their bigoted nonsense and validate the fears and prejudices of other ridiculous oafs.

No wonder things aren’t getting better. The rich puppet masters, with their “news” networks and YouTube videos and scripture, have a ready-made army of non-thinking soldiers to distract and divide and perpetuate lies and myths and half-truths while they raid the Treasury and rob from the poor to give to the rich. The minions appear kind and sweet and loving. They have friends and loved ones and cars and cottages and jobs and bosses and dreams and hobbies just like thinking people. But wave an American flag in front of them and tell ‘em the Constitution is threatened or the illegal Mexicans are stealing their jobs or the welfare mothers are pumpin’ out the crack babies or the Muslims are building a mosque at Ground Zero and they’re primed and ready to do the bidding of their Masters.

I think when Al Gore invented the internet, he should have restricted YouTube posting privileges to those who want to make the world a better place. This anybody-with-a-computer-can-post-a-video thing just makes the series of tubes uglier.