OPINION:
In its sad defense of Sarah Jeong as a newly hired editorial writer, The New York Times expects we will believe its explanation of her in-your-face racism toward white people and hatred of police as “satire” designed to teach us white folk a lesson about our own misguided judgment of people based on their appearance (“NYT’s embattled Sarah Jeong: President Trump is ’basically Hitler’,” Web, Aug. 6). Gee, thanks “Gray Lady” and Sarah, but I’m not buying it. I know when I’m being manipulated and played for a fool.
I began to suspect I was being manipulated by authority figures when quite young. I had no problem accepting parental guidance, but found advice from occasional teachers in elementary school questionable. I really came of age as a teenager in 1957 with the publication of Vance Packard’s “Hidden Persuaders,” a book revealing methods utilized by the advertising industry, politicians and others to direct our thinking into predetermined channels — all while granting us the conceit that we were free thinkers. The shattering of teen naivete by that study pointed me toward a cynical interpretation of many things, an approach with ups and downs, but almost unerringly accurate with respect to politicians and their media chorus.
PAUL BLOUSTEIN
Cincinnati
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