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infinitysisters · 1 year

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If you were to attend the 1939 World’s Fair, you would be greeted with two structures named Trylon and Perisphere. The former was a tall, spire-like structure equipped with what was then the world’s longest escalator. The latter was a humongous sphere. These two modernist structures were the Fair’s mascots.

By stepping into the Peripshere, a new world would be unveiled to you. Inside, a diorama of a future utopian city was constructed called “Democracity.” It was designed to be inhabited by a million and a half people, covering 11,000 square miles.

Trylon and Perisphere, along with Democracity inside, were the symbolic heart of the Fair. But the branding behind it all was intentional for more reasons than one would initially assume. The idea was created by the Fair’s publicity director, Edward Bernays. Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s cousin, known as the man chiefly responsible for bringing his psychoanalytic theories to the United States during the 1920s.

While Sigmund himself fell into despondency in Europe after World War I, Bernays became widely successful in the United States. Using ideas of the unconscious, he quickly gained a reputation as someone who could conjure up mass public opinion for products and issues like no one else. While his later critics likened it to “manipulation,” Bernays himself called it “public relations,” a term he coined.

Yet, reading his work, one finds a deeply cynical man. Bernays rationalized his activities by arguing that the management of mass desire was preferable to the alternative—that is, “letting the unconscious run wild” with its repressed urges. If these dark forces were actually unleashed, he believed, they could undo society itself. Consumerism was hence viewed as a bulwark against the primitive mind of the crowd, and managing its desires was rationalized as necessary in saving society against itself. As he stated openly in his work Propaganda (1928), “the conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.” He was therefore one of the first theorists of what can be called "managed democracy."

Whether he really believed in his own rationalization or not, Bernays did become incredibly wealthy from his services. By the late 1920s, he was “living in a suite of rooms in one of New York’s most expensive hotels, where he gave frequent parties.” According to an employee of Bernays, the events were a “who’s who” of the business elite, the arts, media leaders, and the mayor himself. In due time, his clients also included those within politics and the state. He became a "sort of magician" of public opinion, even though he openly viewed this same public with open contempt. Given his reputation, it was unsurprising that Bernays was tapped for the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Given that the American public was just coming out of the Great Depression, it was known that the reputation of “big business” in the United States was at historic lows. By framing the World’s Fair through the prism of desire, Bernays sought to rehabilitate this perception by giving Americans an open door—one that they themselves did not even know they wanted. Bernays’s daughter confirms this aspiration of his in an interview with Adam Curtis for his documentary A Century of the Self (2002).

Anna Bernays: To my father, the World’s Fair was an opportunity… Capitalism in a democracy, democracy and capitalism in marriage. It was consumerist, but at the same time you inferred in a funny way that democracy and capitalism went together.

Adam Curtis [continues]: The vision it portrayed was of a new democracy in which businesses responded to people’s innermost desires in a way politicians could never do. But it was a form of democracy that viewed people not as active citizens… but as passive consumers… [which] Bernays believed was the key to control in a mass democracy.

As Curtis makes clear, this thinking reached its symbolic high point at the 1939 World’s Fair. A democratic vision was then constructed by its very own skeptic, someone who viewed democracy as nothing other than a form of social management. Historian of public relations, Stewart Ewen, summarized this view in an interview with Adam Curtis:

“It’s not that the people are in charge, but that the people’s desires are in charge. The people exercise no decision-making power within this environment. So democracy is reduced from something which assumes an active citizenry to the idea of the public as passive consumers driven primarily by instinctual or unconscious desires, and if you can trigger those needs and desires, you can get what you want from them.”

At the end of the century, the consequences of this vision would be criticized by writer Christopher Lasch. Published after his death in 1994, Lasch wondered whether American democracy was now merely living off the “borrowed capital of moral and religious traditions antedating the rise of liberalism." Lasch was a critic of the kind of managed democracy that began to emerge around Bernays's time. By the 1990s, the consequences had become self-evident: when Lasch was writing, civic participation had sunk to its lowest point since World War II.

Perhaps this long trajectory—triumphantly advertised as a "new horizon" at the 1939 World’s Fair—helps explain why the state’s competency and ability to execute basic functions has deteriorated so badly in our own time. Needless to say, Bernays's model of managed democracy was not exactly resilient and built to last.

Decades later during the 1970s, optimism would dry up amid scandal as institutional trust collapsed, exposing the hollowness of this consumer model of democracy outright for the first time. The fact that the United States has still not recovered from that “crisis of confidence” is not accidental: the ultimate outcome of a Bernaysian model of managed democracy is not renewal amid crisis, but rather an entrenchment of its old managerial ways, because it has so little of an active public to draw upon.

#1939 40 world's fair #worlds fair #1939 worlds fair #1939 #democracy #capitalism #edward bernays #christopher lasch #progress #futurama #public relations #managed democracy #the beginning of the end #america #substack #sigmund freud #propaganda #propagandists

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mockva · 3 months

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#russia #2024 #propaganda #propagandists #television #Kiselev #Kremlin #nuclear strike #nuclear ash #nuclear war

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virtueisdead · 1 year

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this dude is either a racist troll, the exact target audience for propaganda, or an fbi/nsa psyop sent to spread misinformation

#tiktok #tik tok #tik tok ban #restrict #restrict act #censorship #facism #propagandists #propoganda #kingvirtueisdead #tiktok ban #usa

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afranse · 2 years

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Для него сначала было слово,

А уже потом пришло бабло.

Как приятно, что на Соловьёве

Светится разбитое табло.

И оно разбито не случайно.

И побьётся много раз ещё.

Есть в России маленькая тайна,

Нелюдей бросать через плечо.

Нелюдей мутузить в подворотне,

Душу отстегнувшим за бабло…

На огонь люблю смотреть и море,

И чертей разбитое табло.

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madllamamomma · 2 years

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So I was triggered hard today;

For a little bit of background, I was raised in my young years (pre-k—majority of 4th grade) in an evangelical Christian school, and I particularly remember the brand called, Abeka.

I talk about it all the time IRL, but sometimes I have people looking as if I was over exaggerating about the terrible curriculum, and the propaganda teachings. So, I decided to look up the brand on YouTube—and sure enough, I was fucking right—In fact, it was fucking worse than I thought!

It took me an hour to vent to my husband and I have been traumatized by my past education and struggling because I never learned problem solving skills, nor basic science until fourth grade and I was even held back in 2nd grade because of my ‘poor reading skills’ (I was fucking dyslexic) and was older than everyone else and made fun of for it. And I know, I know, people have had it much much worse than me, I am completely aware—but being a kid with ADD (inattentive ADHD) and dyslexia, I struggled sooo much until I was in late high school and college. I thought I was just stupid, I had such a hard time with school and not realizing I was neuro divergent.

Sometimes I think I am over with all of this, but then I watch something like a video about Abeka, or anything about Christian cults, and I’m back in elementary school thinking I was I had MR (I not saying that to be offensive, I actually thought I had MR).

Being gaslit and told that you’d do better if you just “worked harder” or “just focus a little more” or “just take your medication” is so fucking hurtful. And I really have a hard time moving on.

I’m 29 now and I hate that I still cry about things that happened when I was a child. But it’s unfortunately a part of me, and sometimes I really wish it wasn’t. I wish I was just emotionally stable and had a normal fucking childhood.

Anyways, TL;DR version:

Evangelical Christianity schools are fucking bullshit and harmful to children, full of gaslighting and propaganda, and can make people permanently scarred. Fuck that bullshit. Fuck Abeka, ACE, or any other pseudoscience or cults. FUCK THEM.

#evangelical christianity #fuck this #evangelical propaganda #propagandists #super right wing #fucking terrible #sorry for venting #but I needed to get this out #irl problems #momma is just getting through some issues

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scholarjbard · 1 year

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Anybody else feel like the world is going nuts? Like you just woke up one morning in a completely different world, one that seems to be constantly on fire?

I hoped that the COVID-19 pandemic would bring everyone together, as we put aside our differences and worked towards a brighter future. That didn't happen, in fact a lot of folks got MORE selfish and ended up detaching themselves from reality.

There's an entire subsection of the population who just hate their fellow man. Anything that hurts them, whether that's liberals, progressives, centrists,city dwellers, etc., Is Good and Justified because of XYZ. Even if it damages them as well, who cares, as long as we own the libs or whatever.

And there's even more people who...live in a totally different reality. Where COVID is an evil bioweapon sent from China, but it's also "just the flu" and it's not worth doing anything to stop it. That there's a secret cabal that has total control over the world, but is too weak and stupid to stop some small-town trucker with a high-school diploma.

It's awful. I know Canada was not perfect, but I thought we could become the perfect country I learned about in school. We could work together and be better than we were.

I no longer believe that. We seem to be regressing back to the dark ages. And it makes me really sad. When did we all abandon reason for madness?

#covid19 #depression #world #propagandists #propaganda #right wing terrorism #extremeism #i hate this #apocalypse

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tomorrowusa · 2 years

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NEXTA, an independent news organization which primarily covers Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine reports on Twitter that state-approved Russian media is getting increasingly shambolic and surreal in its explanations for apparent anti-government incidents.

Lenta (Лента.ру) blames the arson of the car of a senior Russian general on a perpetrator who had been kidnapped and hypnotized by Ukraine. 😵‍💫

The Kremlin leadership doesn’t want people to consider that it’s actually Russians who may be engaging in resistance.

The Kremlin claims that the car bomb which killed ultra-nationalist propagandist Darya Dugina was the work of Ukraine. But the FSB’s story claiming it was carried out by a Ukrainian woman in a neon pink hoodie who escaped to Estonia is as laughable as Putin’s pretext for invading Ukraine.

And more recently, Dmitry Litovkin, another pro-Putin propagandist, mysteriously fell ill and died after being placed in an induced coma. He was 51 – not terribly old.

It is not Ukraine but Vladimir Putin who has a long history of killing Russians for his own purposes.

'Putin Has Been Killing His Opponents For Years' Says Wife of Russian Opposition Leader

We can’t say for sure who is responsible for these recent incidents. But there are reports of an anti-Putin National Republican Army active in Russia.

Did Russian resistance kill daughter of Alexander Dugin?

It’s less risky for the Kremlin to make up bizarre excuses than to admit that there may be an active anti-Putin resistance inside Russia.

#invasion of ukraine #russia #resistance #attacks #lenta #hypnosis #darya dugina #dmitry litovkin #propagandists #fsb #vladimir putin

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ksenka-zarazka · 2 years

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this is so darkly ironic but some of the most vile and shit-spewing orc propagandons are ethnically/partially ukrainian. dorenko, mardan (real surname leleka), matvienko, infamous krasovskiy (grew up in ukraine).

their lifelong internal ukrainophobia, inferiority complex that was being nurtured by living in r*ssia is as banal as it gets. but in consequence, they are the most ardent supporters of this shitshow to prove everyone they are “big r*ssians, not little ones”.

looking at soviet history (nothing’s changed lol), they will be the first lined to the wall. the most loyal get the best seats.

#russia today #russian propaganda #propagandists #stop russian disinformation

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lemondeabicyclette · 2 years

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youtube

#fake news pour fake medias #rand paul #propagandists #fake news mayorkas #Youtube

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postersbykeith · 8 months

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#quotes #Bertrand Russell #teacher has thus become #civil servant #carry out the behests #propagandists

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penguinlover27 · 1 year

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This is certainly welcome news. It will be good to get his garbage off of Fake News, but don’t expect him to disappear. He will be back, most likely on another right-wing propaganda network.

#propaganda #propagandists #maga #tucker carlson #fox news #right wing #extremist

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basilsbestpainting · 1 year

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Hey tumblr????????

#pro america #pro america propaganda #propagandists #pro gun

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carolinemillerbooks · 1 year

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New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/the-human-stain/

The Human Stain

Cancer’s plasticity, meaning its cells can change from one form or function to another, gives the disease its endurance and makes it difficult to cure. Big tech has the same plasticity, morphing to address new conditions. Big tech isn’t a disease, of course, but it does have a dark side. Take Google for example. Its search engine seems to have a limitless capacity to collect data which makes it a threat to privacy. In addition, as it grows more monolithic, it strangles competition. At the moment, Google and the other tech giants are extending their tentacles into politics. Taking a page from the tobacco and oil producers, the industry has morphed into a political machine that operates on the state and federal levels. (“Big Tech’s Big Money Inside Game,” by Mike Tanglis, PublicCitizen News Jan/Feb. 2023, pg. 16.) Some members of Congress think it’s time to throw the industry’s expansion into remission. To do so, they’ve proposed an 8-year moratorium on antitrust laws that affect news outlets. They intend to give the media collective bargaining rights so they can negotiate fees from the four tech giants– Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook–when they reprint material. Senator Amy Klobuchar reasons the work of keeping the public informed has value and deserves compensation. Controlling technology’s expansion is no small challenge. Each innovation releases new adaptations onto the internet. One example is the avatar. Technology’s ability to replicate human faces and voices is in its infancy, but Russia and China have rushed to employ this “deep fake” capability in their disinformation campaigns. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy behaves like an avatar, seemingly oblivious to his contradictions. One moment he calls for government transparency. Next, he gives Tucker Carlson of Fox News exclusive access to more than 41,000 hours of Capitol riot surveillance footage. His trust in Carlson, whom some see as a propagandist guilty of spreading disinformation, calls McCarthy’s judgment into question. If the government wants truth, it should restore the Fairness Doctrine. It required newscasters to report all sides of a controversial issue. Once in place, avatars and humans alike would have to meet the same standard. No one can guarantee that hatred and bigotry won’t find their way onto the news cycle, of course. Republican state Representative Dave Eastman has managed it. Determined to eliminate social programs, here’s what he had to say about victims of child abuse. How would you respond to the argument that I have heard on occasion where, in the case where child abuse is fatal, obviously it’s not good for the child, but it’s actually a benefit to society because there aren’t any needs for government service and whatnot over the whole course of that child’s life. Fiscal fastidiousness often reflects a thinly veiled indifference to others. Blaming the least of these for their misery smacks of privilege. An avatar might be excused for fomenting this cancer. A human being, never.

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jdf1azpccbk1 · 1 year

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afranse · 2 years

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Пауки собрались в банке,

Паутиной пропаганды,

Так народ охомутали

По рукам и по ногам.

Старый ворон и вороны

Министерства обороны

Приготовили медальки

Кровожадным паукам.

А народ живёт веками

В паутине с пауками,

И сказать не может слова

Без того, чтоб гнить в тюрьме.

Старый ворон и вороны

Министерства обороны,

Свой народ загнали в угол -

На войне, как на войне.

На дорогах всюду флаги,

Но по сути это лагерь,

Лагерь концентрационной,

Изощрённой самой лжи.

Пауки, собравшись в банке,

Паутиной пропаганды

Доказали - для обмана

Все легенды хороши.

А народ живёт веками

В паутине с пауками,

И сказать не может слова

Без того, чтоб гнить в тюрьме.

Старый ворон и вороны

Министерства обороны,

Свой народ загнали в угол -

На войне, как на войне.

####################

The spiders gathered in the media offices

And by the web of propaganda

Tied up people hands and feet

Washing up their brains.

Old raven and crows

Of the secret service

Prepared medals

Awarding bloodthirsty spiders mental games.

Russian people lived for centuries

In a web with spiders

And can't say a word against government

Without getting in jail.

Old raven and crows

Of the secret service

Drove people into a corner

Inflicting immense pain.

Russia these days is basically a camp.

Concentration camp

Of the plain and sophisticated lies

That distributed daily like food.

Spiders developed together

A web of propaganda

And proved that for deception

All legends look good.

Russian people lived for centuries

In a web with spiders

And can't say a word against government

Without getting in jail.

Old raven and crows

Of the secret service

Drove people into a corner

Inflicting immense pain.

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tree-whisper · 1 year

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What the fuck does this even mean?

#propagandists

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