General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCopy and use this to highlight WHY the GOP pushes its anti-intellectual agenda.
"There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be 'the man in the street.' Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology." Joseph Goebbels
procon
(15,805 posts)I doubt Trump even knows who Goebbels was, let alone read any of his propaganda techniques. Yet Trump's thinking is identical, clearly he is his brother by another mother.
blm
(113,061 posts)Trump took advantage of that agenda when it was at its peak.
procon
(15,805 posts)As a young woman I recall asking my stoic Republican dad about the differences between the two parties.
He told me that the GOP was the party of intellect, science, scholarship and vision. Democrats were more given to emotional needs, instant gratification and short term goals. He didn't tell me that Republicans were also sexist, patriarchal, greedy and elitist, but it was the 'Mad Men' era and that was the prefeminist norm.
That all swapped around after the civil rights act passed, and Republicans added racism to their platform.
LastDemocratInSC
(3,647 posts)I remember the know-nothing John Birchers in my hometown in the 50s and 60s.
TheBlackAdder
(28,201 posts)Thunderbeast
(3,411 posts)and "Nattering Nabobs"?
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)that the Republicans had become The John Birch Society.
Whiskeytide
(4,461 posts)... go away. They just went under cover until they could co-op the Republican Party.
Kid Berwyn
(14,904 posts)If I may add to this great post and thread:
The Powell Memo (also known as the Powell Manifesto)
The Powell Memo was first published August 23, 1971
Introduction
In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powells nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powells legal objectivity. [font color="red"]Anderson cautioned that Powell might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice in behalf of business interests.[/font color]
Though Powells memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administrations hands-off business philosophy.
Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building a focus we share, though often with sharply contrasting goals.* (See our endnote for more on this.)
So did Powells political views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. [font color="red"]Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment right for corporations to influence ballot questions.[/font color] On social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers.
CONTINUED...
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/
Critical history of propaganda written by the guy who schooled Chomsky, Australian sociologist Alex Carey:
The 20th century is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy.
Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda
The Attack on Democracy
The 20th century, said Carey, is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy. Carey wrote that the people of the US have been subjected to an unparalleled, expensive, 3/4 century long propaganda effort designed to expand corporate rights by undermining democracy and destroying the unions. And, in his manuscript, unpublished during his life time, he described that history, going back to World War I and ending with the Reagan era. Carey covers the little known role of the US Chamber of Commerce in the McCarthy witch hunts of post WWII and shows how the continued campaign against "Big Government" plays an important role in bringing Reagan to power.
John Pilger called Carey "a second Orwell", Noam Chomsky dedicated his book, Manufacturing Consent, to him. And even though TUC Radio runs our documentary based on Carey's manuscript at least every two years and draws a huge response each time, Alex Carey is still unknown.
Given today's spotlight on corporations that may change. It is not only the Occupy movement that inspired me to present this program again at this time. By an amazing historic coincidence Bill Moyers and Charlie Cray of Greenpeace have just added the missing chapter to Carey's analysis. Carey's manuscript ends in 1988 when he committed suicide. Moyers and Cray begin with 1971 and bring the corporate propaganda project up to date.
This is a fairly complex production with many voices, historic sound clips, and source material. The program has been used by writers and students of history and propaganda. Alex Carey: Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Corporate Propaganda VS Freedom and Liberty with a foreword by Noam Chomsky was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1995.
SOURCE: http://tucradio.org/new.html
Truth is what Democracies crave.
CrispyQ
(36,464 posts)"Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building..."
Hmmm, what else was going on in the 80s? Oh yeah. Hate radio. They funded think tanks to craft their message & bought up radio stations to broadcast it. And now we have Americans wearing tee-shirts that read "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat."