What I’ve noticed in this campaign blitz to defeat “Yes on Measure J” (because it’s obvious) is that there are several propaganda tactics being used by the No on J coalition to manipulate public opinion. The most obvious and insidious one is:
“The authors of Measure J want a total shutdown of our county’s small but vital petroleum industry.”
That is a blatant lie. And to make it work effectively, they keep telling the same lie over and over until people start to believe it. Can they not make their argument based on merit alone? How about a total shutdown on the smear campaign and opening up some vital debate?
Just as effective and insidious is the tactic to demonize or disenfranchise their opposition. Make them seem like an enemy. In this instance, the “No on J” campaign continually refers to the “Yes On J” people as “outsiders” who (somehow and vaguely) “threaten our way of life.” It is deceptive to say that the “Yes on J” campaign was:
“Hatched by activists and lawyers from outside San Benito to serve their own political agendas.”
In reality the campaign was started by locally concerned SBC residents who hired lawyers from San Francisco to draft the wording of their grassroots campaign to ban fracking in this county. This activism is going on throughout the State of California, all over the U.S. and other countries. The irony is that the oil companies who are fronting loads of money for the advertising and television commercials to defeat Measure J can also be construed as outsiders who threaten our way of life. Take into consideration the millions of gallons of water that one fracking well requires and the fact that we are in the midst of a severe and possibly long-term drought. That’s a real threat to our way of life.
So I ask, what collective and cohesive unit are they referring to when they say, “our way of life”? Does that only include the members of San Benito United for Energy Independence? We are a diverse mix of people that make up this community and one of many counties that make up the State of California. We’re all in this together with our opinions, political leanings and our right to vote. You are no less a member of this community and its way of life if you are against fracking, so stand strong in your convictions. Don’t get sucked into banal propagandizing and its divisive schemes.
Enough of the B.S. being shoveled thorugh my mail slot. It argues nothing about the merits and thoroughly fails to be informative in a relevant way. Where’s the integrity? Where’s the debate? Tell us about enhanced extraction techniques. They sound like such delicate operations, as if fracked wells produce unicorn farts that turn into rainbows.l
John McDonald, San Benito County
