Occam's Banana
01-17-2014, 11:05 PM
Check out this new website: http://www.goldenrulenews.org
This is absolutely brilliant.
http://goldenrulenews.org/about/
About the Golden Rule News Network
GRN is a satirical publication using real life events as a basis for suggesting how readers might feel if the people and places were changed. We use invented names in all our stories, except in cases where public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.
GRN’s purpose is to suggest adherence to the “golden rule”— a code of morality shared by most religions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule#Religion_and_philosophy). This rule suggests that we should treat other people how we desire to be treated. GRN believes that this maxim applies to foreign policy as much as it applies to interpersonal relationships.
Our primary audience is the citizens of the United States of America. Inasmuch as the American military spends more on “national defense” than the next 10 countries combined (http://pgpf.org/Chart-Archive/0053_defense-comparison), and kills innocent people (http://www.policymic.com/articles/22228/predator-drone-strikes-kill-up-to-50-civilians-for-every-1-terrorist-assassinated-study) on a routine basis, we urge our countrymen to consider how those affected by the military’s actions would feel. This is best done by applying the golden rule, or more simply, envisioning what it would be like if these actions were happening to them or their loved ones.
In December 2013, a drone’s bomb killed over a dozen innocent people attending a wedding in Yemen, and injured many more. As one commentary (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/if-a-drone-strike-hit-an-american-wedding-wed-ground-our-fleet/282373/) on this tragic event asks, “Can you imagine the wall-to-wall press coverage, the outrage, and the empathy for the victims that would follow if an American wedding were attacked in this fashion? Or how you’d feel about a foreign power that attacked your wedding in this fashion?”
It is difficult to really know how we would feel, as it has never happened. For our entire lives, America has been the world’s leading (and most aggressive) power, insulating its citizens from how it feels to wonder if they’ll die from a foreign country’s sanctions, occupation, or drones that day. Thus, to understand how we would feel, GRN alters news stories to use American people and places as the victims of the attack, as opposed to being the perpetrators.
GRN invites its readers to share our articles widely to encourage debate, cause self-reflection, and promote peace.
What a great chat I had on my podcast (http://www.TomWoodsRadio.com) today with the creator of the subversive Golden Rule News Network (http://www.goldenrulenews.org).
Tom talks to the founder of GoldenRuleNews.org, Connor Boyack, about the neglected Golden Rule, and what we can learn by reversing the names of countries in news stories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJAS8yrhEBk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJAS8yrhEBk
This is absolutely brilliant.
http://goldenrulenews.org/about/
About the Golden Rule News Network
GRN is a satirical publication using real life events as a basis for suggesting how readers might feel if the people and places were changed. We use invented names in all our stories, except in cases where public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental.
GRN’s purpose is to suggest adherence to the “golden rule”— a code of morality shared by most religions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule#Religion_and_philosophy). This rule suggests that we should treat other people how we desire to be treated. GRN believes that this maxim applies to foreign policy as much as it applies to interpersonal relationships.
Our primary audience is the citizens of the United States of America. Inasmuch as the American military spends more on “national defense” than the next 10 countries combined (http://pgpf.org/Chart-Archive/0053_defense-comparison), and kills innocent people (http://www.policymic.com/articles/22228/predator-drone-strikes-kill-up-to-50-civilians-for-every-1-terrorist-assassinated-study) on a routine basis, we urge our countrymen to consider how those affected by the military’s actions would feel. This is best done by applying the golden rule, or more simply, envisioning what it would be like if these actions were happening to them or their loved ones.
In December 2013, a drone’s bomb killed over a dozen innocent people attending a wedding in Yemen, and injured many more. As one commentary (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/if-a-drone-strike-hit-an-american-wedding-wed-ground-our-fleet/282373/) on this tragic event asks, “Can you imagine the wall-to-wall press coverage, the outrage, and the empathy for the victims that would follow if an American wedding were attacked in this fashion? Or how you’d feel about a foreign power that attacked your wedding in this fashion?”
It is difficult to really know how we would feel, as it has never happened. For our entire lives, America has been the world’s leading (and most aggressive) power, insulating its citizens from how it feels to wonder if they’ll die from a foreign country’s sanctions, occupation, or drones that day. Thus, to understand how we would feel, GRN alters news stories to use American people and places as the victims of the attack, as opposed to being the perpetrators.
GRN invites its readers to share our articles widely to encourage debate, cause self-reflection, and promote peace.
What a great chat I had on my podcast (http://www.TomWoodsRadio.com) today with the creator of the subversive Golden Rule News Network (http://www.goldenrulenews.org).
Tom talks to the founder of GoldenRuleNews.org, Connor Boyack, about the neglected Golden Rule, and what we can learn by reversing the names of countries in news stories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJAS8yrhEBk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJAS8yrhEBk