I find it hard to imagine that you could convince a tree hugging hippie of the benefits of Nazism let alone joe public off the street.
Do not underestimate the power of manipulation.
If reading (about) Ed Bernays is unappealing, perhaps reading the books (or watching the interviews) of Mattias Desmet, about mass formation and the psychology of totalitarianism may offer a substantial conceptual and awareness leg-up, to help ease imagining not just that it could be done, but how it does get done. Quite an important work for our times. I dare say even more than the late great David Graeber’s brilliant offerings. For freedom and stuff.
Edit: extra rambles for the curious
I didn’t need to shoot for such a sensational example as Charles Manson & MK Ultra. It’s happening insidiously all the time.
…
Ever see a “tree hugging hippie” wearing corporate brand clothing?
Convincing, coupled with steepening coercion of monopoly.
Agnotology makes propaganda/advertising style psyops easier.
All that, even before the terror gets laid on thick, knocking people out of their critical, creative, considerate fore brain activity, into their reactive limbic brain activity, where social dominance is just one of the atrocities reframed as necessary virtue for survival that’s now attached to the group and the… Yeah, Mattias Desmet explains it better.
…
And there’s many a quote yet, for the accompanying insight that, counterculture is embraced, extended and extinguished, icons hoisted, and turned into branded products to be sold by the corporation back to the people protesting the corporation.
…
And it’s not new, just accelerated now. And this is the more insidious, and seemingly oh so innocent and benign form, even in its accelerated state from all the computer network assisted data-mining and cold-reading in real-time. But it was the same yonks ago… such as back in the 1960s it can be observed:
“In the 1960s, it took months before someone figured out they could sell tie-dyed shirts and bell bottoms to anyone who wanted to rebel. In the 1990s, it took weeks to start selling flannel shirts and Doc Martens to people in the Deep South. Now people are hired by corporations to go to bars and clubs and observe what the counterculture is into and have it on the shelves in the mall stores right as it becomes popular. The counterculture, the indie fans, and the underground stars - they are the driving force behind capitalism. They are the engine. This brings us to the point: Competition among consumers is the turbine of capitalism.” — David McRaney
I think that’s intellectually dishonest actually.
Nazism is only really appealing to people who are already predisposed to think along those sort of lines. I.e. hard right wing voters.
I find it hard to imagine that you could convince a tree hugging hippie of the benefits of Nazism let alone joe public off the street.
Do not underestimate the power of manipulation.
If reading (about) Ed Bernays is unappealing, perhaps reading the books (or watching the interviews) of Mattias Desmet, about mass formation and the psychology of totalitarianism may offer a substantial conceptual and awareness leg-up, to help ease imagining not just that it could be done, but how it does get done. Quite an important work for our times. I dare say even more than the late great David Graeber’s brilliant offerings. For freedom and stuff.
Edit: extra rambles for the curious
I didn’t need to shoot for such a sensational example as Charles Manson & MK Ultra. It’s happening insidiously all the time.
…
Ever see a “tree hugging hippie” wearing corporate brand clothing?
Convincing, coupled with steepening coercion of monopoly.
Agnotology makes propaganda/advertising style psyops easier.
All that, even before the terror gets laid on thick, knocking people out of their critical, creative, considerate fore brain activity, into their reactive limbic brain activity, where social dominance is just one of the atrocities reframed as necessary virtue for survival that’s now attached to the group and the… Yeah, Mattias Desmet explains it better.
…
And there’s many a quote yet, for the accompanying insight that, counterculture is embraced, extended and extinguished, icons hoisted, and turned into branded products to be sold by the corporation back to the people protesting the corporation.
…
And it’s not new, just accelerated now. And this is the more insidious, and seemingly oh so innocent and benign form, even in its accelerated state from all the computer network assisted data-mining and cold-reading in real-time. But it was the same yonks ago… such as back in the 1960s it can be observed:
“In the 1960s, it took months before someone figured out they could sell tie-dyed shirts and bell bottoms to anyone who wanted to rebel. In the 1990s, it took weeks to start selling flannel shirts and Doc Martens to people in the Deep South. Now people are hired by corporations to go to bars and clubs and observe what the counterculture is into and have it on the shelves in the mall stores right as it becomes popular. The counterculture, the indie fans, and the underground stars - they are the driving force behind capitalism. They are the engine. This brings us to the point: Competition among consumers is the turbine of capitalism.” — David McRaney