<div>Ken et. al.</div>
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<div>It appears you possess a far greater knowledge of computers and the Internet than I do... </div>
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<div>However, I do not understand how your first response below relates to the comment I made that you appear to be answering. I did not comment on those who built the Internet structure, but merely on the "average" user (I was not then, nor am I now, exceptionally computer savvy), such as myself, in 2002, who was easily able to find credible sources on the Internet shedding serious doubt on the claims of Iraq WMD and Iraq ties to Al Qaeda. </div>
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<div>Regarding your comment on "novices and newcomers" to web resources, many of those I talked to in 2002 were just as or more capable of using the Internet than I was; yet many of them believed Bush's claims about Iraq WMD and ties to Al Qaeda, including many in the US Congress, resulting in support for the disastrous invasion. Surely members of the US Congress in 2002 knew how to use the Internet? </div>
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<div>My point, I thought I had made clear, was that the usefulness of the Internet as a means for discovering truth is only as good as the independent critical thinking skills of those online. Hook millions of people together on the Internet who lack independent critical thinking skills, and the Internet can mislead and control, rather than enlighten and educate. I suspect the reason so many people were willing to believe the Bush administration's claims about Iraq in 2002 was the very understandable climate of fear and knee jerk patriotism following the 9/11 attacks. Fear can paralyze calm independent critical thinking, even among the most intelligent.</div>
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<div>Also, in 2002, as an "average" user of the Internet, there were porn sites galore offering to sell their content, using tricky strategies to unexpectedly and annoyingly load their come-on pages of steamy content. I believe I am correct that in 2002, porn was one of the dominant activities (I will now add "of the average user") on the Internet. My comment that "...there's egalitarian political liberation for you." was meant sarcastically, of course.</div>
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<div>Actually, the sources I read on the Internet in 2002 about Iraq and associated issues, could have been sourced from books, newspapers, magazines, radio, or televised media. But the Internet makes this sort of research much easier (if you can sort through the abundant misinformation and propaganda).</div>
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<div>Ted Moffett<br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 4/8/08, <b class="gmail_sendername">Kenneth Marcy</b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:kmmos1@verizon.net" target="_blank">kmmos1@verizon.net</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">On Tuesday 08 April 2008 01:31, Ted Moffett wrote:<br><snip><br>> It is well known that porno is one of the dominant activities on the<br>
> Internet. Now there's egalitarian political liberation for you!<br><br>Blue-pencil rewrites of Internet history are better relegated to alternate<br>worlds sites and fantasy fan-fiction devotees. Actually, financial profits<br>
from widespread distribution of multiple graphics formats motivated and<br>enabled the physical build-out of earlier versions of Internet structure.<br>The engineers who designed and built expansions of the early core of the<br>
Internet, and the early customers of those businesses that financed large<br>portions of that early expansion, likely were not, and may still not be,<br>individuals with passionate interests in government, politics, economics,<br>
justice, and various other social science concerns.<br><br>> What<br>> a diversion from the responsible investigations that should have concerned<br>> every citizen about Iraq WMDs and ties to Al Qaeda, during the 2002 run up<br>
> to this disastrous and cruel war!<br><br>Perhaps. Even though many of us assume the well-developed existence of the<br>Internet and the World Wide Web, and expect almost everyone has access and<br>some degree of net and web literacy and ability, the facts are that a lot<br>
of people are still relative newcomers and novices to using available web<br>resources. Some of those folks' Internet insecurity (in more than one<br>sense) mitigates against their ready participation in substantive Internet<br>
activities. And, though the situation is changing, it's still true that Web<br>users are generally younger, and generally younger often means not yet as<br>interested in public matters as older folks who participate in the polity.<br>
<br>On the other hand, think about this -- it's only a couple of years before a<br>generation that has known only Bill Clinton and the junior Bush as<br>President will start college. They may be digitally dexterous, but have<br>
they any civics cluefullness? How will the generation that grew up with<br>myspace, facebook, and youtube understand political participation? Perhaps<br>this question is being answered in our contemporary headlines.<br><br>
<br>Ken<br><br><br>Ken<br></blockquote></div><br>