How To Escape The Age Of Mass Delusion

The Federalist ^ | June 8, 2015 | Stella Morabito

[ProgressingAmerica]

Nearly 100 years ago, Walter Lippmann wrote about “the manufacture of consent” in his classic work, “Public Opinion.” On the heels of that book, Edward Bernays penned a little volume called “Propaganda,” in which he stated that an elite would always be responsible for making the public aware of “new ideas” which the public would then act upon as the elite nudged them into it. Related, but more in-depth is Jacques Ellul’s 1962 book, “Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes.”

[afsnco]

Interesting. I canceled cable TV years ago because I recognized it for the indoctrination and conformance tool it is. They strive the normalize the abnormal, and all that does is pi$$ me off, so I refuse to pay for such indoctrination anymore. “Celebrating” abominable behaviors on any of our entertainment devices also is not permitted.

[Dick Bachert]

Suicide??

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the post.

[GOPJ]

Mass delusion is an important tool of oppressors because they can’t survive free expression. That’s why the First Amendment’s a target.

[GOPJ]

Rush is currently reading parts of this article right now live on the air.

You might want to ping your list to this one...

[Disambiguator]

Debating with a Liberal/Progressive has as much value as would debating with someone from ISIS.

You can't debate a liberal, because they refuse (or are unable to) discuss the issue at hand. It always devolves into name-calling and subject-changing.

[SunkenCiv]

Great quote.

[cld51860]

There is maybe one exception to this. The show Portlandia. Pretty merciless.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Talk is cheap - it is printing presses, ink, and paper which cost money.

None of which are on the shopping list for that money. Political spending is all about mass media buys.

1. Printing presses are the original mass media, and

2. as I discuss in my post, the framers of the constitution anticipated the other mass media, in principle if not specifically.

And the Ninth Amendment says that the First Amendment is a floor under our liberties, not a ceiling above them . . . which is an argument not only for the expansive reading of “the press” to include other opinion expression technologies which the Patent Office provision encourages, and also for the retention of the right which Hamilton, Jay, and Madison exercised when they published the Federalist Papers pseudonymously. A right which “campaign finance reform” advocates presume to abolish - but which the framers judged to be needful in order to get the Constitution ratified.

[Carry_Okie]

I wasn’t talking about the Constitution. I was talking about the barriers to entry for mass communication and the purpose for money as equivalent to speech. It’s not for printing presses and paper as you said it was); it’s for access to mass electronic distribution, media branding if you will.

[x]

The “one drop rule” maybe. Heard of it?

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I wasn’t talking about the Constitution. I was talking about the barriers to entry for mass communication and the purpose for money as equivalent to speech.

When I said that “money isn’t speech, money is the press” I merely meant that by itself "freedom of speech" doesn’t intrinsically imply the right to spend money for “media branding” - but the right to print does. Necessarily.

[Carry_Okie]

When I said that “money isn’t speech, money is the press” I merely meant that by itself "freedom of speech" doesn’t intrinsically imply the right to spend money for “media branding” - but the right to print does. Necessarily.

Disagree there. The only difference is the medium by which ideas are communicated. That "branding" is typically a legacy of massive capital spending.

[P.O.E.]

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Charles Mackay, 1841

There is nothing new under the sun.

[GOPJ]

Thanks...

Have you seen this one... it’s the best slam on Hillary Clinton - and no one’s posted it yet...

http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/15/the-kick-off-hillary-clinton-the-bogus-womens-advocate/

“Hillary Clinton is an advocate for women as long as you are not one of Bill Clinton’s rape victims, girlfriends or Vince Foster’s widow. If you were a woman who was one of Bill’s serial sexual assault victims you were vilified as a “slut,” “whore,” “bitch,” or “trash” by Hillary Clinton. There is also solid evidence that it was Hillary who engaged the heavy-handed private detectives who terrorized and silenced Bill’s victims lest they retard the Clintons’ grasp for power.

Hillary’s newfound advocacy for children probably does not include the 18 children murdered by federal agents in Waco Texas. Hillary Clinton’s handpicked Deputy Attorney General Webb Hubbell entered the command center to convey Hillary’s “go order.” The investigator for the House Committee that investigated the Waco incident wrote that Hillary Clinton had given the final order. Senator Arlen Specter who chaired a Senate investigation into the Waco killings said there was substantial testimony proving that Hillary Clinton, acting as a virtual co-president at that time, gave the order that resulted in the deaths of 18 children. Most of the victims of Hillary’s tragic command to begin the final assault on the Branch Davidians were women and children. Of the 76 people who were murdered at Waco on April 19, 1993, 46 were females, 28 were males and 2 were babies in the womb. Thirty people were under the age of 21 years; an astounding eighteen of the dead were children who were 8 years old or younger.”

more at link

[YHAOS]

The Age Of Mass Delusion?
I recommend not participating.

[AFPhys]

I find that a very hearty belly laugh whenever such subjects arise is the most effective comment I can make... Then following up with discussion of the way circus barkers would introduce and hype the freak shows for the low brow gawkers. Very like the way the lame-stream media hype the current freak shows. Makes my point most times.

[Rummyfan]

Marking.