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Vin LoPresti's avatar

According to Albert Speer's memoirs, one can conclude that the most dangerous individual in the Third Reich was Josef Goebbels, the propaganda minister. Sinister to a fault, Goebbels was an effective manipulator of Hitler, responsible for promoting numerous insane policies. Such history warns of the immense danger of propagandists in driving policy decisions that are assumed to be semi-rationally made by political leaders. But we never learn: humans are willingly irrational creatures whose history of continual brainwashing can be readily utilized to manufacture consent for the most vile actions. In the pantheon of war criminals, never forget that this group of liars occupies a preeminent position.

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Saul Boutme's avatar

War is a propaganda Disneyland, where anything goes, as long as it stirs emotions.

The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 is a giant piece of legislation of which the general public has no idea that it knows it exists.

1947 saw the enactment of The Smith-Mundt Act, an anti propaganda law for Americans and their information sources. Post WWll, the people just wanted the wartime lies to stop, and they sorta did with Smith-Mundt, until O'bomber had the foresight to "modernize" journalistic input and pull the plug on open propaganda. They were lying before, but it was illegal for them to do that, until 2012.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/5736

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