Thursday, May 19, 2005

''The Silence of the Scams'' (UPDATED)

"Psychological Resistance to Facing Election Fraud, by Diane Perlman, Ph.D.

Thought experiment: What if it was discovered, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that there was a widespread pattern of election fraud, with higher spikes in swing states, including hundreds of dirty tricks unreported in the media, adding up to numbers which might shift the outcome of the election, and that most Americans didn't know or didn't want to know? It is curious that an issue so profound and consequential is barely on the radar screens of most Americans, especially those who voted for Kerry. Many say there is fraud in every election, but there was far more in 2004 than in any previous year, and if the errors were random, about half would go in Kerry's favor. Virtually all went in Bush's favor. But rather than demanding a thorough investigation, the American people seem eager to forget the incidents and put the election behind them, thus implicitly supporting such corruption."-from the article by this academic scholar who studies the connections between psychology and politics. As I have said before, I used to teach social psychology and can't let go of this issue. Update: Diane Perlman sends along the following, in response to today's post: "Thanks so much for putting this up. Here is a revised edition - parts edited by Charles of Newtopia, and parts revised by me based on feedback from readers' discussions on the previous version. Thanks, BTW, on the last Real Time with Bill Maher, he and Gore Vidal brought up the subject - but still enormous resistance and suppression, thanks, Diane." There are great comments there, too, courtesy of The Smirking Chimp.

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