Ad/Propoganda Ramble

I was flipping through channels the other night, to what was I guess a channel for local paid advertisements or something of that nature, and it had this ad for a group trying to dispel the label of "jewish extremist" or "terrorist" group (I can't remember the exact label used), and to do so a number of passages from the bible were cited. But they were vague passages that seemed completely unrelated and irrelevant. It was like seeing politicians selectively citing christian scripture to make them sound righteous. But I didn't catch if they even mentioned what it was they advocated or believed in other than the vague and obligatory "we believe in God/Allah/Yahweh/*insert alternate diety here*", I don't know if they were calling for the enslavement of christians, the obliteration of the moon, an end to war, or the extermination of the Jews (which would have been ironic). It was an odd kind of self promotion with attempts at spiffy graphics and repitition of the groups name in seemingly every sentence but little else. It was just like putting up the picture of a car and just repeating the word "BUY".

Why I even stopped on that channel I don't know, I never stop on one of the two dozen christian networks, so why did this spark the curiousity other than "what the hell is this"? It wasn't interest in the group itself, it was more curiosity at the seemingly clumsily orcheastrated propoganda, as well as the noting of how easy it is to fool people by invoking the name of whichever diety the majority of the audience believed in, unless the speaker actually believed it himself and wasn't pandering or spinning. I dunno, something about propoganda, the herd nature of our species as well as our gullibility, and people's predisposition towards spreading false information or half-truths catchs my attention in some way, and the question of when is someone telling the truth or lying and followed by why are they or how do you know for sure that they are.

Bah, this probably makes little sense. I'm not even sure why I started writing about this other than the propoganda and the philosophical questions that arose livened me up a bit at a time when I really need some livening up. Complacency with a way of life or amount of activity (or lackthereof) is a hard thing to fight, especially when you're content with it. I think I need a good kick in the head. Heh.