alt Hacker NewsThe conclusion that every government came to after Bernays' "Crystallizing Public Opinion" is that the society who can be arbitrarily manipulated by propaganda is better because it's something like adding a rudder to a rudderless ship.
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staplers • yesterday at 9:44 PM
If democracy is predicated on independent thought and decision (free speech, free vote), then the "rudder" in this analogy becomes authoritarianism with an additional step.
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amelius • yesterday at 11:20 PM
Except foreign powers can also control that rudder.
Society has a rudder. You couldn't claim a society exists _without_ one. It's a defining characteristic.
What society doesn't have is a _fast_ or particularly responsive rudder. It moves slow and hates capricious changes. It frustrates capital which wants to move quickly and change as often as is needed to derive greater profits.
They're not manipulating you for your own good. They're doing it for money.