“The Obama Deception”

I think the film’s thesis is that Barack Obama is not the hope and change that our country thought they were voting for. It has a lot of points that try to support this. For example, the idea that Barack Obama and our government are actually controlled by groups that aren’t a part of our government such as the Federal Reserve Bank.
Alex Jones attempts to tap into our Triune Brain by various editing techniques and clever narration. Right in the beginning of the film, it shows the inauguration speech of Obama. The clip is originally supported with the sound of cheers and excitement. In this film, there is ominous music ultimately leading up to a shot of Obama. This affects the limbic part of our brain because it creates emotion by the use of music. It’s not something we have real control over naturally. Just from hearing the shady music, it creates a different perspective of Obama. There was also the scene when Alex Jones and his crew were leaving the Marriot and there was a car following them. I thought this was a good example of how our neocortex works. Alex Jones interpreted the car behind them as someone following them for whatever reason. Someone else could also interpret it as someone who just wanted to go to Moe’s to get a taco and they happened to be on the same route as them. But Alex Jones and his editor cut and narrated the film to make it look the other way. It’s hard to know which one is true. How do we know what we know?
This film also uses several persuasive techniques that have been discussed in our class. One of the most common tools used was Plain Folks. Alex Jones often referred to the viewers as “the people” to connect us to his beliefs. It’s a good way to indirectly connect us to the film. The film also uses Testimonials. Many “experts” such as Webster Tarpley and Gerald Celente are given titles that show their past work which is translated to reliability. Just because Webster Tarpley has written two books doesn’t mean that he is 100% credible. A third technique of persuasion is Timing. Going back to the example I provided before of the car following them around after leaving the hotel. That may have just been clever editing to make it look like the car was directly following them. This next persuasive technique is similar to the Plain Folks technique. Group Dynamics were used in this film. When Alex Jones is outside with all the protestors both at the hotel and the Federal Reserve Bank, he is with a group of followers and supporters of his ideas. It creates a group dynamic which increases his support. Alex Jones’ film also Card Stacks. Information is taken out of context in this film. At one point, Alex Jones says “everything” that Obama has said he would do, he hasn’t done. I am sure there are many things he has done that he has promised so far, but we don’t get the whole story on it by both the news and Alex Jones’ documentary. He also Name Calls a lot. He goes on a rant at one point where he calls Obama a Judas goat.
The “reality” construction of this film has a few trade offs that are worth mentioning. I really enjoy watching documentaries and there’s a lot to learn from them. However, some documentaries such as this one leave me skeptical of the information provided. It is almost always bias and the editing alone can sometimes leave me totally convinced of something I previously knew nothing about. Editing is a production technique this film highly relied on. Since most of the footage was previously recorded, editing those clips together to create a story or perspective is challenging but I think they did it well for this documentary. There was one shot that they did create that I thought was very effective. It was a 3D animation that was made for each of the people in power. It was a serious, darkly lighted pan shot that created a very menacing atmosphere. There were great amounts of emotional transfers in this documentary. For example, many times through the use of music, they would build one idea up, and then knock it down creating the emotion of despair. Then at the end of the movie they build back up a sense of hope to create a will to fight back. It didn’t work too well on me; but I can see how it could inspire certain people. This creates individual meanings for the documentary. Some people are open to the “facts” in this documentary and others are closed. I fall somewhere in between. I think there are some great points about our government and the way things work; but I also think there is some farfetched ideas as well.
This documentary represents some new technological shifts. The video is available online on YouTube. I was also able to download it shortly after it came out from an exclusive downloading site. Having the video to scan through at all times in decent quality made deconstructing it easier. This documentary also represented an epistemological shift. The film threw out a lot of information to the viewer. Because its video, all that information is being showed quickly. The downside to this is that once the information is presented, it’s gone. It was hard to retain a lot of the information the first time around. Unlike text, with video you can’t go back and read…unless you rewind, but that’s too much effort.
Towards the beginning of the film, Alex Jones says that over one million Iraqis have died since the war and that 5000 US soldiers have died. I wasn’t aware of how many Iraqis have died since the war. Until I chose to present the story from Censored 2009 titled, “Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation,” I didn’t really know much about the number of Iraqi deaths from the war. Reading that article and doing some research hasn’t completely changed my opinion about the war but it does deeply impact it. That’s a lot of deaths.
The Bilderberg Group was a group I knew nothing about. We talked about it in class and I also read up on them a little. Because the only information I had about it originally came from this documentary, I was subjected to that perspective only. From what I read, the meetings held by the Bilderberg Group are meetings between successful people in power. Alex Jones proposes that since they don’t allow media coverage or reporting about the meetings, that they are evil and plotting to dominate the world. Just because the meetings are not open to the media, doesn’t mean they’re bad. There are plenty of private meetings in politics. The public has the right to know certain information, and other information I believe should be left to the government.
Something else I didn’t know about before was that the Federal Reserve Bank is an independent company that isn’t an actual part of the government. It is as federal as federal express. The day we talked about this in class, in my next class our teacher brought it up and I was one of the only people who also knew about it. Ironic how that works. But I found that strange that this organization would name themselves with the word “federal” in the front. I found that really strange and after doing some later research I learned that many previous US presidents were against it. I don’t really know much about banking and how it fits into politics and all that; but anytime you give one organization too much power, there is a risk of their responsibility being jeopardized.
I liked watching this documentary. Like I said, there were some things I liked and some things I didn’t like. Even if I don’t agree with everything, there’s usually something I can take from these sort of films.