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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI figure that their target audience is at the core of what America has always been about...
rainy
(6,083 posts)democrank
(11,052 posts)RestoreAmerica2020
(3,433 posts)"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Lyndon B. Johnson
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I will never understand it as long as I live.
Xipe Totec
(43,872 posts)DFW
(54,056 posts)"The billionaires" is just sloganeering, just like the radical right goes off against "the liberals." George Soros didn't pull that off, Peter Norton didn't pull that off, Clint Carlson didn't pull that off, Oprah didn't pull that off, Warren Buffett didn't pull that off, Bill Gates didn't pull that off, Tom Steyer didn't pull that off. Right wing billionaires helped pull that off.
And the "power to fight back against big banks and big corps" comes from the one thing that was left out: education.
The fact remains, of course, that it WAS pulled off. They took a hint from Nazi Luftwaffe boss, Hermann Göring. He was interviewed at Nürnberg in 1946 while in Allied captivity. Just read what he said about how to convince a nation's people to go to war:
Why, of course, the people dont want war, Goering shrugged. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people dont want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.
There is one difference, I pointed out. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.
Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
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Of course the people dont want war. But after all, its the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and its always a simple matter to drag the people along whether its a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.
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As a high-ranking member of the Nazi Hierarchy, Göring knew only too well how to make propaganda manipulate popular sentiment. You can't tell me that Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes didn't study Hitler and Göbbels, and tried to put refining touches on their tactics.
Göring was only too right about the people not wanting war--especially that "poor slob on a farm." My father-in-law was that poor slob on a farm. He did NOT come back in one piece.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)political ideology would be successful. Ignorant white wingers are our problem. FOX, etc., simply panders to them.