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Summary
"Official Lies opens the curtain on our modern Wizard of Oz: the vast propaganda machine headquartered in Washington, D.C." "By turns scathing, reflective, amusing, and outrageous, Official Lies exposes the ways in which the federal government manipulates opinion and subverts democracy by the incessant promotion of its own interests. Washington has become the publishing and movie-making capital of the world: those reams of copy and reels of film it produces are too often accepted as gospel truth by a gullible press." "The scope of these official deceptions is breathtaking. Official Lies reveals how our permanent Congress (which all the electoral dynamite in the world can't seem to dislodge) is kept in place by masterly use of huge staffs deployed like armies, promiscuous use of the frank, and chicanery and graft that would make Boss Tweed blush." "From welfare to drugs to defense, Uncle Sam consistently misrepresents problems so that his muscles can grow ever larger. Poverty statistics have been systematically overblown in order to win greater spending on social programs. (Astonishingly, 22,000 households officially designated as "poor" own Jacuzzis or heated swimming pools.)" "Agricultural aid, advertised as a balm to ailing all-American families right out of Norman Rockwell, has in fact showered millionaire farmers (including the Prince of Liechtenstein!) with a bounty of taxpayers' dollars." "Official Lies takes on the preposterous scare stories: the myth of global warming (or a new ice age, depending on the computer one uses and the weather in Washington), the poison apple hoax, the asbestos mess, and others. Behind each of these hoodwinkings is the most powerful special interest in the world - the U.S. government - seeking to enhance its own power." "Fearlessly, Official Lies reveals the vaunted War on Drugs for what it is: a stew of lies and distortions concocted by the modern heirs of the Prohibitionists. The authors also examine the real motives behind the burgeoning movements to restrict tobacco use and modify adult sexual behavior via the threat of heterosexual AIDS." "Official Lies takes the reader into a netherworld in which failure is success and honesty is scarce. It does so with a lively mixture of wit and fury and is sure to be one of the most hotly debated political books of the year."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Reviews (1)
Booklist Review
Two libertarian professors launch a furious assault on the pretensions of Washington bureaucrats. Heedless of orthodoxies, this well-documented expose pokes holes in the phony statistics and spurious logic that government officials use to justify huge budgets and vast powers. Whether it is federal efforts to combat global warming or the crusade to enforce political correctness on the nation's campuses, the authors find serious debate crowded out by dishonest propaganda. Besides discrediting official dogmas, Bennett and DiLorenzo show why current institutional incentives foster and reward deception. Again and again, government nannies suppress studies showing that people would actually be better off without statist intervention. The debunking style sometimes overheats, but the authors know how to boil away the fraudulent claims that fill public life. ~--Bryce Christensen