Here we find a real propaganda poster from the WWII era.

From Thinkquest:

This poster, which urges viewers to conserve gasoline by joining a car-sharing club, also belonged to a common type of wartime poster. Since materials and supplies for the war effort were scarce, conservation was encouraged by propaganda. Gasoline, especially, was important because it was necessary to fuel tanks and aircraft. This poster is a fairly typical example of this type, with the common suggestion that waste will aid the enemy. Hitler is often mentioned by name instead of referring to the Nazis or the Reich, because propaganda tended to personify the evil of the Nazis in Hitler. Interestingly enough, this is almost exactly the opposite of what occurred in Germany, where Hitler embodied everything good about the Reich. Also, in this poster, the stereotypical image of Hitler is used, in uniform with an exaggerated moustache and iron cross. The American is shown to be unaware that he is aiding the enemy, which implies that those who drive alone are also uninformed. The poster claims to correct that by urging the average viewer to quickly join a car-sharing club to conserve gasoline. Posters such as this were extremely common after America entered the war.

In today’s terms, one could say that when you support the Reason Foundation, you support Osama.

Meanwhile, if you can stay awake through a Charlie Rose interview, his recent interview with Amory Lovins, author of Winning the Oil Endgame is worth checking out. And before you go ga-ga over Lovins’ Hypercar concept, just remember his warning about problems the car will not solve.

A recent issue of the journal Policy Review has a brillian essay by Peter Katzenstein and Robert Keohane: Anti-Americanisms. For those who view anti-Americanism as a single philosophy, hell-bent on destroying America, this essay will help clear things up a little. Is anti-Americanism a reaction against what the United States does, or what the United States is? The answer: it depends on the particular form of anti-Americanism.

Katzenstein and Keohane are careful to note that part of their argument involves a distinction between opinion and bias:

Some expressions of unfavorable attitudes merely reflect opinion: unfavorable judgments about the United States or its policies. Others, however, reflect bias: a predisposition to believe negative reports about the United States and to discount positive ones. Bias implies a distortion of information processing, while adverse opinion is consistent with maintaining openness to new information that will change one’s views.

As Jeff Stein recently noted in his New York Times article, Can You Tell a Sunni from a Shiite, it helps a great deal to know your enemy, and many of our top foreign policy lawmakers don’t. How much Middle Eastern anti-Americanism is rooted in bias (and, therefore, a much more complex problem to deal with), and how much is rooted in opinion (and, therefore, open to change)?

Anti-Americanism is not the story that the cultural warriors on the Right would like you to believe. With a few extremely rare exceptions, it turns out not to be a threat toward the United States. To deal with the issue with any bit of effectiveness, it helps to understand that there are different policy implications for each type of anti-Americanism.