It's the oldest trick in the book. If advertising is "create a need and fill it," then authoritarian action is "create an enemy and oppose it." I heard the same lies about Iraq as I did about Vietnam, and people were equally panicked into following the leader into a disaster. One doesn't need to repeat the lies that the Nazis used, or th…
It's the oldest trick in the book. If advertising is "create a need and fill it," then authoritarian action is "create an enemy and oppose it." I heard the same lies about Iraq as I did about Vietnam, and people were equally panicked into following the leader into a disaster. One doesn't need to repeat the lies that the Nazis used, or the Stalinists, or the McCarthyites or so many others who talked about the "enemies trying to destroy us" to see the same playbook here. For now it is a little lighter--outside aliens among us, not disloyal citizens--but that can change. On the plus side this time more people are aware of the lies and hysteria but whether that translates into anything being different remains to be seen. And that is up to all of us.
It's the oldest trick in the book. If advertising is "create a need and fill it," then authoritarian action is "create an enemy and oppose it." I heard the same lies about Iraq as I did about Vietnam, and people were equally panicked into following the leader into a disaster. One doesn't need to repeat the lies that the Nazis used, or the Stalinists, or the McCarthyites or so many others who talked about the "enemies trying to destroy us" to see the same playbook here. For now it is a little lighter--outside aliens among us, not disloyal citizens--but that can change. On the plus side this time more people are aware of the lies and hysteria but whether that translates into anything being different remains to be seen. And that is up to all of us.