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Hussein Khalil

Guy Debord - Society of the Spectacle, 1973 pt. 1 - 1 views

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    This is a movie made and narrated by Guy Debord himself, based on his "Society of the Spectacle" - however the narration itself consists of his writings, as well as those of Marx and Hegel. It is a very critical take on Media and its effects in times of great change (ongoing industrialization and rise of consumerism). There are several parts to it, just wait till the end of the video to move on to Part 2.
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    Also, it brought this article to mind as a (pre-emptive) counter-argument: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/positively-media/201111/social-networks-what-maslow-misses-0 And got me to think of how critically Debord would view social media platforms' role in representation and spectacle (Facebook, Youtube, Blogger to a larger extent)
Tarek Maamari

KONY 2012 - YouTube - 5 views

shared by Tarek Maamari on 07 Mar 12 - No Cached
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    This may not be a political campaign, but Invisible Children has created an ingenious advocacy campaign. My Facebook newsfeed is dominated by KONY 2012 today. Take a look. Here's the actual website: http://s3.amazonaws.com/kony2012/kony-4.html
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    At 21:45, the video actually starts talking about how the campaign to find Joseph Kony will work. It's global, interactive, and inspiring.
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    Yes I watched it, it really is inspiring! I came to post it here, you beat me to it! :)
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    The use of media to "Make Kony Famous" Humanitarian campaign using mostly digital media.
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    yea i kno it has nthn to do with a political campaign but still it depicts the use of media
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    Definitely worth following #stopkony stream line tonight... Interesting tweets & RTs...
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    This is definitely a political communication campaign! You can do an interesting critical analysis and reach very interesting conclusions concerning political communication campaigns. I would be glad if we can briefly discuss this tomorrow in class. (I know 50 minutes are not enough to have discussions and go over theories so I hope we'll have time for both Kony and Obama discussions)
Dima Saber

Global Voices · Citizen media stories about Egypt - 0 views

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    Some citizen-media content on the Elections in Egypt
Tarek Maamari

Does mass media influence voters? Evidence from the US | vox - Research-based policy an... - 1 views

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    Some data related to the effect of media on voters
Miriam Assaad

Media Landscape - Lebanon - European Journalism Centre - 2 views

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    This is an overview about the Lebanese media its history and development ..
Tarek Maamari

Full List - The 100 Most Influential People in the World - TIME - 1 views

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    not directly political or media.. but its a gd read.. ron paul and mitt romney are in the list
Brittany Frye

Media Effects: Fox News Viewers Know Less Than People Who Don't Watch Any News - 3 views

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    Fox News viewers are less informed than people who don't watch any news, according to a new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University. The poll surveyed New Jersey residents about the uprisings in Egypt and the Middle East, and where they get their news sources.
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    Not surprising, but still funny to see presented with statistical evidence.
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    Jon Stewart discusses the U.S. mainstream media and describes it as sensationalist and lazy (mainstream meaning New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, etc.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM1YaAwOPuQ&feature=related
Miriam Assaad

Kony? What about America's war criminals? - 3 views

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    Interesting analysis of the US motives from the Kony intervention
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    Interesting video, but I think anyone watching has to remain aware that it's produced by RT America, which was founded and is funded by the Russian government. Many have described its content as pro-Kremlin/pro-Putin propaganda, including The Economist, which I would say is a pretty reliable media source. But for the sake of the class, it would be interesting to compare the issues RT America highlights to the issues CNN or BBC highlights.
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    The issues brought to light in this video are all very important but does that make KONY2012 any less important? A man, an organization, can only do so much. First, they can't focus on more than one issue at a time. Second, they shouldn't have to. It's not their job. It's remarkable enough that they could mobilize so many people to get interested in Uganda. No one's stopping any other man/organization from campaigning for these other causes that need attention...
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    That's 1. 2- Just because Uganda has oil, it does not mean that an intervention that is strictly directed towards the arrest of a horrible psychopath would eventually aim at exploiting its resources. There are over 70 million people watching the US' steps in Uganda now. The US can't afford to make any mistakes. Besides, this whole thing would be excellent publicity for the US' role as world's biggest humanitarian heroes. So yes, it does serve US interests, just not financial ones. Not this time.
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    To clarify I am not against kony 2012 but 100% pro... However this video raises alot of questions and it highlights some of the issues we should take into consideration before advocating the Kony case... there are hundreds of people and guerrillas in Africa that are similar to Kony for instance their is Buko Haram in Nigeria bombing the north everyday why didnt they intervene if its a humanitarian cause... Could this be part of Obama's optimism strategy to prove that American is coming back furthermore with all the success that China has and the dominance it has in the African markets there are financial benefits that can be reaped from this intervention and probably kony is a tool http://sites.duke.edu/sjpp/2011/america-v-china-battleground-africa/ this is an article that highlights the issue...
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    Well from what the initial Kony2012 video portrays, it was purely a civil society action, fueled by one massive advocacy campaign. I agree with Zeina, the motives don't stem from pure gain, in fact their deployment of 100 troops is for advisory purposes - they are there to train the Ugandan resistance to take down the Kony and the LRA, who have been substantially expulsed from Ugandan territories. (Conspiracy theory: they're sending a few men to find the oil) And so far it has not only shown to US's hegemony in humanitarian affairs, but also civil society's direct ability to shape foreign policy without direct lobbying (through ADVOCACY CAMPAIGNS - unless we've established it under political communication campaigns)
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    The massive advocacy campaign is due to opinion leaders dispatching the video like Oprah Winfrey with 9.6 million followers or Rihanna along with several other artists... this is why the video had such a huge number of views in a short time... However, i think the reality is far more complex and much of it has to do with Western business interests in Africa, and in African resources in particular.
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    Well obviously, it's like Obama using Kanye West to support him during elections. The grassroots of the campaign was one man, and his personal mission to give Jacob a better life. How he did it determined the success of the actual campaign. It's not always down to the hard numbers, because if the US did indeed have business in Africa, they wouldn't spontaneously decide to enter into the Middle of Africa, a highly volatile and mostly marginalized area. They began a push in the North, with the "Liberation" (?) of Libya, and would progressively move from there. Of course this is almost all speculation, but their push for Uganda doesn't make strategic sense.
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    1. Although it's irrelevant, President Obama never recruited Kanye West to campaign for him. 2. Of course the U.S. has economic and security interests in Africa. What's inherently wrong with that? Don't make the small deployment of U.S. troops sound like a conspiracy to obtain some completely immoral and corrupt end. Here's an article from a U.S.-based political news website that usually has somewhat of a conservative slant. It discusses U.S. strategic interests in Uganda. http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2012/03/08/us_strategic_interests_in_uganda_99947.html
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    By the way, Miriam cool article from Duke's foreign policy journal about China and the U.S.
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    1. Thanks Brittany for the clarification about Kanye, my main point was that Celebrities are the medium, and not the political communicator. 2. The article really sheds light on the context in the region and gives great background. I didn't at any point say that it was a conspiracy to reach a corrupt end, it was meant as a sarcastic observation hence the parenthesis and use of "conspiracy". The article definitely underlines a Cold War-esque push in the region, but the stages right now are embryonic, even with China's role in the region: http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/files/81.pdf the situation is contentious and it's too early to assert anything definitively. I did not say there were no interests, rather, they are not acting upon them with this deployment. Which brings me back to my point, that the current foreign policy objective is LRA over economic and security action. - I should have expressed myself in more precise terms, however, the point was aimed at being a general observation. Don't get me wrong though, the article is great. Personal Opinion Note: The Ugandan government is "stable" relative to the region, they do have a formal government, however the on the ground political situation mirrors the Lebanese in a way, seeing as how they are still recovering from sectarian strife, so economic trade coupled with regional and internal instability does not seem strategic right now.
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    I'm very happy Marcel is an aware artist, I hope his album sells, however, some of his facts are wrong, but he makes very valid points still... And as for RT being a Russian-funded-and-founded news outlet, I think that's a thing to take into consideration as well, but I do find the views expressed by Marcel quite compelling.
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    I am not going to discuss US politics since you guys already did and stated different point of views. What I would like to discuss is how the controversy about Invisible Children is affecting the Kony campaign. I think we should not be naive and believe that this campaign purposes are as simple as "giving Jacob a better life". This Hollywood style video is a bit too much not to have some deeper motives. Indeed, Kony is killing people and he is a "bad guy" but he is not the only one in this world so the question that always come to my mind is "Why Kony?" and that's what support my opinion about the hidden purposes of this campaign. On March 9th Zeina posted an interesting article in French on Twitter about the critics against the KONY 2012 campaign. Some critics accuse Invisible Children of funding the regular Ugandan Army and there are even pictures showing the relation between the organization and the army. Invisible Children may be lying about their real motives but does this lessen the importance of Kony crimes and criminal behavior? Of course not! My opinion is that once an organization is dishonest about its real motives in a campaign, it automatically loses a lot of credibility and people's focus shift from the ideas presented in the campaign (which are true) to the organization itself. If we apply this to Kony, what I'm saying is that people will start focusing on Invisible Children and their motives and activities and start forgetting that Kony is a real criminal.
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    Well-said! I agree.
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    Well sounds like Diigo does work much better than Moodle. And Jad, yes I agree with Brittany, well-said. This all sounds like amazing material for a position paper. More tomorrow in class!
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    100%. Now I have a question for you: doesn't financing the Ugandan army feed into Invisible Children's main goal of arresting Kony? So what are these hidden motives everyone is talking about?
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    They never stated anything about this which makes it a "hidden" motive regardless if it something good or bad. Dishonesty. Great Idea Ms. Saber I'm going to write a position paper about this :)
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    Actually, it doesn't necessarily mean "dishonest" at least in the way the campaign developed. Just because the NGO didn't roll out their entire agenda in a video doesn't mean they're hiding anything. The video itself was aimed at a component of their objective in Uganda: Make Kony a household name. Dishonest here is a matter of opinion, in terms of how the campaign construction and evolution (encoding) is done. Calling it a scam is like saying advertisers are trying to steal your money, they don't tell you we want to make profit, but rather you need to consume our product. If you choose to participate and donate, it is your job as an activist to do the necessary research, at least in my opinion. The rest can be chalked up to the debate: should campaigners give its audience all of the information or should they give them enough and have them make a decision (lethargic & informed vs. active & smart). Then we seek to define how much is enough, which gets down to opinion. The bottom line however is over such a short period of time and the quick rise of the deviant opinion is something we should definitely examine. The "hidden" motives are basically the motives that weren't included in the video KONY2012 video. However it fulfilled its purpose as a medium, raise awareness about the cause (itself, but not the NGO's agenda), involve as many people as possible. In the end it comes down to framing the issue. As for Invisible Children as an organization, it has its Vision and Mission Statement set clear on its website. There were very broad headlines concerning their Kony initiative, they offered a step by step plan when major criticism began to surface. They have updated their page accordingly: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html - and cracking down because of their funding of the Ugandan army is a matter of political debate. Either you prefer to arm the Ugandans (past human rights abusers) and have them expel the threat themselves, allow the threat of the L
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    RA to grow, or allow foreign intervention to deal with the issue. From here it's a matter of perspective, and which proponent is thinking of the case of Uganda.
Hussein Khalil

The Failure of Lebanon's Facebook Demonstrations - 0 views

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    When people started shooting at each other in Tripoli and Tarik el Jdide, the rest of the Lebanese were visibly angry. Residents were clamoring loudly on radio talk shows, on TV stations and on the internet for the insanity to stop. A cry for assembly was made across social media platforms, one that echoed faintly on the ground and brought no material progress.
zeina ammar

The Beirut Report: The myth of Lebanese television news - 1 views

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    Average Daily Viewership Share in Lebanon for 2011 LBC 38.4% Jadeed: 35 % MTV 28.7% OTV 25.4% Future 16.7% NBN 12.3% Manar 12% TL: 11.6% Future News: 10.9%
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    Unfortunately we can't know how accurate are those results...
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    The study was conducted by IPSOS not by the blogger. Why wouldn't it be accurate?
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    It's not about IPSOS it's about the respondents. I'm sure a lot of people, when being surveyed, will give answers according to political beliefs and not according to what TV channel they really watch...
Toufic Sarieddine

Newt Gingrich 'to quit campaign'... predictable - 0 views

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    Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is expected to suspend his campaign next week, US media reports. The former House Speaker said on Wednesday that he expected Mitt Romney, who won five primaries on Tuesday, to be the Republican nominee. The Gingrich campaign had said it would reassess its future if he did not win the contest in Delaware.
Tarek Maamari

Free Media Productions : Multimedia Development for Political Dissidents - 0 views

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    they have a point
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    check the video
Brittany Frye

Julia Bacha: One Story, One Film, Many Changes - 3 views

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    Bacha discusses the U.S. media, confirmation bias, and methods of expanding people's belief systems through film. Also, her documentary Budrus is definitely worth watching if you haven't already.
Dima Saber

Judge Napolitano.How to get fired in under 5 mins - YouTube - 1 views

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    Interesting questions
Dina Azar

Guest post: Joseph Kony is not in Uganda (and other complicated things) - By Michael Wi... - 0 views

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    Click here to see photos of the evolution of the LRA. Thanks to an incredibly effective social media effort, #StopKony is trending on Twitter today. The campaign coincides with a new awareness-raising documentary by the group Invisible Children.
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    "Coming back to the "Kony 2012" video and its celebrity endorsements, what are the consequences of unleashing so many exuberant activists armed with so few facts? Defining Uganda in the international conversation by issues that are either geographical misfires (Save northern Uganda!) or an intentional attempt to distract the international community (Death to the gays!), do a disservice to the many critical problems Uganda has."
Dina Azar

Man who tweeted bin Laden's raid - 8 views

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    Do you guys think it really is possible for regular people to become "journalists" through social networking sites like twitter? thoughts??
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    Sure it is called "Citizen Journalism" :) It is actually an important debate in the journalism world!
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    The terms "journalist" and "reporter" are often used interchangeably. I'd make the distinction between the two and say that so-called citizen journalists are actually citizen reporters. Reporter = a person who makes a shorthand record of a speech or proceeding (Merriam-Webster). Journalist = a writer who aims at a mass audience (Merriam-Webster). When you tweet about an event, you don't produce a well-researched piece of writing but a spontaneous piece of information. I call that citizen reporting.
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    All I can say this is definitely enough reason for you guys to join the Twitter vs. Journalism debate at ArabNet Community Day (March 31). www.arabnet.me :-)
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    I liked this differentiation Zeina :)
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    Wow that's amazing!
Dima Hajj

Rick Santorum's latest ad against Obama - 8 views

shared by Dima Hajj on 25 Mar 12 - No Cached
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    What do you guys think of this? Seems ridiculous to me..
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    I am not sure if I am more amused or scared about this increasing tendency to build momentum towards a war on Iran... I mean you guys could campaign, sure! But why Iran? Again? Seriously?!
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    wow
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    I understand that it is a bit exaggerated but obama will indeed grow much more radical in which case he's re-elected. I'd love to see the look on the faces of democrats after a second obama term, but hopefully he won't see another term. Unless of course Santorum wins the nomination.
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    Daniel you're such a rightist in all your positions about absolutely everything. Gotta admire the consistency...
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    Of course I am! And thanks! :)
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    you guys, it was like santorum took control of my computer! i couldn't even pause the video to continue on my rampage against him. did you notice at :32 when the creepy voice says, "and the residents of THIS town must come to grips with the harsh reality that a rogue nation and swarn american enemy, has become a nuclear threat." the OBSESSION with iran has to stop, it's getting a little out of hand. santorum is using propaganda (at it's absolute worst!) to rally the americans into another war with another invisible enemy. jesus. i cannot see any more santorum news, it'll make me sick.
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    Dina 100% with you. Which is why, Daniel (oh Daniel!) we REALLY need to talk. I need to hear your arguments one by one. Not in class of course but find a way because your convictions are so strong that they terrify me. I have so many questions for you.
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    I hate Santorum and I do not support him, but for you to call Iran an American obsession is very interesting. Iran now trains terrorists in full-fledged camps in Venezuela, and deals with drug cartels in Mexico which have access to American soil, and it's still an "obsession" to you? Let's not go too far, stay here in Lebanon and look at your situation, do you really approve of Iran's gradual encroachment on your historical home as a member of a minority? Or perhaps you will awaken when alcohol and clubbing among other things are no longer allowed in Lebanon? It's called way of life and it is such a shame to see the liberal media succeed in alienating those who defend our way of life. Zeina my convictions aren't meant to terrify you, they're meant to terrify those determined leftists or anything/anyone ultimately contributing to the curbing of my freedom or the changing of my identity. They should know that there is and will always be a hard wall they will hit other than reality.
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    "obama will indeed grow much more radical in which case he's re-elected" I HOPE he becomes more "radical" in his second term when he no longer has to worry about getting reelected. He has been way too soft on certain controversial issues (i.e. healthcare reform). For instance, some speculate that he may legalize gay marriage or alter U.S. policy towards Israel once reelected.
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    These speculations are not to his advantage though, are they? I mean gay marriage sure whatever I'm guessing all Democrats (and sane people) agree on that but Israel policy? That will cost him.
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    i just wanted to share this: John Brabender, a senior advisor to Santorum, told CNN the campaign has no plans to purchase airtime for the video. don't worry daniel, i'll be getting back to your condescending comment in a moment.
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    Well for you this is a dream come true but for me it's a nightmare. "Too soft"? You call gradually turning America into a socialist country "too soft"? 99 weeks of unemployment benefits is not "too soft". The EPA having enough power to enforce a freaking dust limit just because of nine migratory birds is not "too soft". VETOING the Keystone Pipeline is not "too soft". I could go on, but then again, things like that actually please liberals. I don't like to emphasize gay marriage a lot since I'm indifferent to it but don't prefer it. But to think that the he'll change US policy towards Israel, especially at this critical time, is a nightmare that even Santorum ad's can't express. Republicans, and Conservatives in general, are the sane people, but look at history, people who turned out to be right were always at first alienated and made to look stupid. No hard feelings.
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    Dude I'm sorry if I made you feel like you were under attack. I respect your opinion. I really would've liked to have this conversation elsewhere so that I don't spam everyone's inbox. My main concern is not that you have these opinions but that you refuse to question them. You seem so certain about everything. I myself change positions on the same subject 100 times before settling on one opinion and I've learned to do that thanks to people around me who keep challenging me. And I wanted to hear your arguments precisely to reconsider my positions once again. PS: sorry about the word "sane" I had no right to say it like that and I certainly wasn't directing it against you. Peace, Love & Such Positive Vibes *_*
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    haha you have no idea what I had to go through to arrive at these conclusions. Self-doubt, head splitting pondering, constant self-criticism, etc. But as you said it always helps to be challenged, it reveals flaws. I'm glad that you made me think hard about what to say. No need to worry I considered this a strictly political debate from the start and I'm also sorry if I said something messed up. Peace.
Miriam Assaad

Katy Perry advocating for the marines - 2 views

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    Finally, a pop culture production that's actually PRO-military.
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    Did I really get your comment right? If so, why are we happy about -anything- pro-military again?
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    Because ever since the troops were sent to war the anti-war media and pop culture industry haven't spared an effort to alienate them and make their sacrifices look worthless.
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