flâneur

Liberalism is losing the information war - by Noah Smith

noahpinion.blog · 2,035 words · saved by 1 readers

“The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people's minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize they're being propagandized.” — Elmer Davis, head of the Office of War Information The image above is from a short film called Don’t Be a Sucker, first released in 1943 during the height of World War 2 and then re-released in 1947 after the war’s end. The film depicts a nativist, bigoted demagogue railing against minorities while standing in front of a flag and claiming to be an “American American”. In the film, a man watching the show — representing the American everyman — meets a Hungarian refugee who warns him about how anti-minority scaremongering was how the Nazis came to power in Germany. Meanwhile, the film’s narrator extols American diversity and the inherent strength of a liberal society. Don’t Be a Sucker remains highly influential to this day, and was widely circulated as a warning against fascism in the aftermath of th

“The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people's minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture when they do not realize they're being propagandized.” — Elmer Davis, head of the Office of War Information The image above is from a short film called Don’t Be a Sucker, first released in 1943 during the height of World War 2 and then re-released in 1947 after the war’s end. The film depicts a nativist, bigoted demagogue railing against minorities while standing in front of a flag and claiming to be an “American American”. In the film, a man watching the show…

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