13.0. A Lie
At http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lie, the Free Dictionary defines a lie as,
“1. To present false information with the intention of deceiving.
2. To convey a false image or impression:”
At http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lie, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a lie as,
“1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive
2 : to create a false or misleading impression”
Vladimir Lenin who led the Bolshevik Revolutionary, helped create the Soviet Union and launched the communist era in Russia said,
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”
Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. He was one of Adolf Hitler‘s closest associates and most devoted follower who strongly supported the extermination of the Jews when the Nazi leadership developed their “Final Solution“. Joseph Goebbels said,
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Dr. Robert Strecker was the first doctor to state that HIV/AIDS was a man made disease. He also said that,
“It is easier for a king to have a lie believed than a beggar to spread the truth?”
In the case of “Pit Bulls”, the “kings” are the police, medical workers, animal control personnel, lawyers, judges, legislators and anyone who is perceived by the public to be in a position where they should know what they are talking about but frequently don’t.
The lies are that:
1. Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, Bull Terriers, Dogo Argentinos, Boxers, Cane Corsoes, Perros de Presa Canario, Bandogs, Tosa-Inus, Alapha Blue Blood Bulldogs, Catahoula Leopard Dogs and countless other dogs are “Pit Bulls”;
2. “Pit Bulls” are ALL killers, vicious, not trustworthy, unpredictable, only good for dogfighting, etc.; and
3. calling a dog a “Pit Bull” makes it a “Pit Bull” if the person applying the label is a bystander, pet owner, police, medical worker, animal control personnel, lawyer, judge, legislator, etc. If a Pepsi was poured into a glass and a million drank from the glass and called the contents a Coke, would it be a Coke or a Pepsi? Calling a dog a “Pit Bull” does NOT make it a “Pit Bull”, just like calling a Pepsi a Coke does not make the Pepsi a Coke!
The “painting” of groups with a “broad brush” is not unusual since it has been done many times before when large segments of the populace believed the lies they were being told.
1. In Nazi Germany, millions of Jews were exterminated because Hitler hated Jews and blamed them for all of the problems in the world. He especially blamed them for Germany’s loss of World War I. Hitler told the German people that they could have won the first war, if Germany had not been “stabbed in the back” by the Jews and their conspirators. http://www.holocaust-history.org/short-essays/why-the-jews.shtml
2. The relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II was one of the most flagrant violations of civil liberties in American history. According to the census of 1940, 127,000 persons of Japanese ancestry lived in the United States, the majority on the West Coast. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, rumors spread, fueled by race prejudice, of a plot among Japanese-Americans to sabotage the war effort. In early 1942, the Roosevelt administration was pressured by farmers seeking to eliminate Japanese competition, a public fearing sabotage, politicians hoping to gain by standing against an unpopular group, and military authorities to remove persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast.
On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which forced all Japanese-Americans, regardless of loyalty or citizenship, to evacuate the West Coast. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation
3. Whites, African Americans, and Latinos have comparable rates of drug use but are arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated for drug offenses at vastly different rates in the United States. For example, African Americans are nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, even though their rates of marijuana use are roughly equivalent. While only 13 percent of the US population, African Americans represent 41 percent of state prisoners, and 44 percent of federal prisoners serving time for drug offenses. http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/united-states
4. In August 2013, a federal court found that the “stop and frisk” policy of the New York City Police Department violated the rights of minorities. A disproportionate share of people “stopped and frisked” under the policy are African American or Latino, and the New York Civil Liberties Union reports that 89 percent of those stopped are innocent of any wrongdoing. The NYPD appealed the ruling. http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/united-states
5. On March 27, 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Committee issued a report on the U.S. government’s role in perpetuating injustices both within its borders and abroad. The committee condemned the United States’ lack of accountability for disappearance, torture, and unlawful killings of terrorism suspects, and its failure to apply the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to international operations. In addition, the committee denounced racial disparities in law that have led to the incarceration of a disproportionate number of minorities (particularly Blacks and Latinos), effectively denying them basic human rights throughout the criminal justice process. This includes severe sentencing such as the death penalty and life without parole for juveniles; improper use of solitary confinement; and denial of civil rights following incarceration. https://www.aclu.org/blog/un-holds-us-accountable-human-rights-violations-home-and-abroad
6. The United States contains the largest prison population in the world, holding over 2.4 million people in domestic jails and prisons, immigration detention centers, military prisons, civil commitment centers and juvenile correctional facilities. Its prison population is even larger than those of authoritarian governments like China and Russia, which, respectively, hold 1,640,000 and 681,600 prisoners, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies. More than 60 percent of the US prison population are people of color. African Americans, while 13 percent of the national population, constitute nearly 41 percent of the prison population. Moreover, one in every three black males can expect to go to prison in their lifetime, compared to one in every six Latino males, and one in every 17 white males. Thus, black men are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white men. Even though whites and blacks use drugs at roughly the same rates, African Americans are more likely to be imprisoned for drug-related offenses than whites. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22887-un-human-rights-committee-finds-us-in-serious-violation#
7. An estimated 12,000 years ago, a mass migration of nomadic peoples, traveled across a land bridge that connected Asia to what is now Alaska. These people would come to be called Native Americans, numbering over 50 million, and settling from the top of North America to the bottom of South America.
By the time Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean in 1492, historians estimate that there were 10 million indigenous peoples living in the U.S. territory. But by 1900, the number had been reduced to less than 300,000.
European expansion into North America – whether to find gold, escape religious persecution or start a new life – led to the destruction of Native American livelihoods. Disease was a major killer, followed by malnutrition. Colonists in search of gold staged violent ambushes on tribal villages, fueling animosity with Natives. Several wars broke out between tribes and American settlers which led to large death tolls, land dispossession, oppression and blatant racism. http://www.tribunal1965.org/en/atrocities-against-native-americans/
All of the victims in the preceding examples were human, and all of those injustices were based on lies that were believed by the populace.
If humans do this to other humans, what will they do to animals?
Who or what is going to stop them?
Fifty years ago, the so-called “Pit Bulls” were regarded as prized possessions. Why did it change?
Mark Twain said,
“The history of the race, and each individual’s experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.”
The misinformation that permeates the subject of “Pit Bulls” is more-often-than-not inaccurate in the identification of the perpetrators. I am not guiltless in this regard because I also believed that “Pit Bulls” were a “breed”, but I found it impossible to believe they were involved in all of the misadventures reported in the various media and by individuals.
When I saw photographs or videos of the dogs involved in the events, most of the time they did not look like the dogs I thought were “Pit Bulls”. It was only after researching the subject for several years that I finally figured out what was actually happening and why.
Avram Noam Chomsky is sometimes described as the “father of modern linguistics”. Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy, and has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has authored over 100 books. He was voted the “world’s top public intellectual” in a 2005 poll. Chomsky says,
“Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain. It’s something you have to find out for yourself.”
Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha said,
“Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.”
I finally learned for myself and now believe! However, Dresden James, a British writer and novelist said,
“When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.”
It is now apparent to me that this web of lies about so-called “Pit Bulls” was created over the last fifty or so years. Hopefully, it can be undone, and it will not take another fifty or so years to do it. However, if I am perceived as a “raving lunatic” for trying to find the truth, then so be it!
