“…access to your mind is what is being sold.”

Yup. Details:

The Lewis Powell Memo: A Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy

Additional important history to know...

Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda

The Attack on Democracy

The 20th century, said Carey, is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy. Carey wrote that the people of the US have been subjected to an unparalleled, expensive, 3/4 century long propaganda effort designed to expand corporate rights by undermining democracy and destroying the unions. And, in his manuscript, unpublished during his life time, he described that history, going back to World War I and ending with the Reagan era. Carey covers the little known role of the US Chamber of Commerce in the McCarthy witch hunts of post WWII and shows how the continued campaign against "Big Government" plays an important role in bringing Reagan to power.

John Pilger called Carey "a second Orwell", Noam Chomsky dedicated his book, Manufacturing Consent, to him. And even though TUC Radio runs our documentary based on Carey's manuscript at least every two years and draws a huge response each time, Alex Carey is still unknown.

Given today's spotlight on corporations that may change. It is not only the Occupy movement that inspired me to present this program again at this time. By an amazing historic coincidence Bill Moyers and Charlie Cray of Greenpeace have just added the missing chapter to Carey's analysis. Carey's manuscript ends in 1988 when he committed suicide. Moyers and Cray begin with 1971 and bring the corporate propaganda project up to date.

This is a fairly complex production with many voices, historic sound clips, and source material. The program has been used by writers and students of history and propaganda. Alex Carey: Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Corporate Propaganda VS Freedom and Liberty with a foreword by Noam Chomsky was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1995.

Source: TUC Radio

Part 1: https://tucradio.org/podcasts/newest-podcasts/alex-carey-corporations-and-propaganda-part-one-of-two/

Part 2: https://tucradio.org/podcasts/newest-podcasts/alex-carey-corporations-and-propaganda-part-two-of-two/


Gore Vidal on what Americans read, see and hear via Corporate McPravda:

"A writer must always tell the truth, unless he is a journalist."

“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.”

“When you control opinion, as corporate America controls opinion in the United States by owning the media, you can make the masses believe almost anything you want, and guide them as you please.”

Here’s an observation from me, back in 2024 when SCROTUS birthed King Taco:

What hasn’t gotten enough mention in the coverage of Trump’s Imperial Immunity and discussion of what constitutes official and unofficial conduct on ABCNNBCBSFoxNutz is what the ruling really means: SCOTUS just used a Sharpie on the Constitution to write in Donald J Trump where it used to read “We the People.”

"The Apprentice"

Thanks KidBerwyn.

I grew up having my perceptions shaped by white-washed westerns and strong patriarchal models of the perfect families, communities, femininity, etc. How discombobulating it was to find these paradigms did not work when overlaid on real life. It is hard to dump ideas that have been firmly rooted by such strong early influence.

we risk becoming merely "spectators to our own culture."

I think it is worse than that; for the reasons and experience you shared.

How about aquiescent accomplices??

And because many consumers are also participants in multimedia platforms, they are willing "accomplices."

But I say they are also creators of culture.

It's a fact that while many, many human artists and human YouTube producers have millions of followers, they create culture, but not just one of spectatorship, since many human spectators themselves go on to produce human internet content.

The internet created a new generation of stars from diverse platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Vine, and Tumblr, including musicians like The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Halsey, Carly Rae Jepsen, along with actors/comedians like Darren Criss, Liza Koshy, Lily Singh, and general influencers (MrBeast, Addison Rae, PewDiePie, Logan Paul), which showcases how raw human talent and personality can build massive global followings and transition into mainstream fame.

Smoking was a standard in movies. Not only did the leads smoke but people in the background (extras) smoked too.

I’m not sure if Edward Bernays was part of this but the point of Hollywood stars wearing massive shiny jewelry on the “red carpet” was for the female to look at their male with a “well Elizabeth Taylor can have THAT would it hurt YOU to buy ME something?”
In the post war 50’s where high school couples often married and there were tons of good paying manufacturing jobs available there were even in school presentations about jewelry to plant the seed. When I was in high school in the 80’s we had full school assemblies to sell us class rings. I never bought one because I actually have a fear of jewelry. I just don’t like it.



Edward Bernays was incredibly influential in what I’m calling commercial propaganda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays

11:30

I had to look it up. Turns out you are not alone.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. too

I wear a simple gold wedding band. I’m used to that. I took the same approach as learning to wear a watch - sleep with it in one night.

I might have that too but always assumed it was the autism. I can't stand the sensation of wearing things that are too tight, wrapped around me, pulling or weighing down parts of my body or making noises when I move. Anything around the neck is the worst. I can't even wear lanyards at work.

I'm not sure it's a phobia in that it doesn't bother me to see other people wearing jewelry but I avoid it like the plague myself.

I remember how everyone was fawning over the brochures, giddily discussing what ring they'd get. I tossed my brochure as I left the assembly, knowing we couldn't afford one and I wouldn't have wanted one if we could.

I lettered in football and soccer but I didn’t want be Harry Highschool when I went to college. I had an old ID green Army jacket I bought at a surplus place.

I didn't attend the sporting events, let alone letter in anything. Mr. School Spirit I was not

The jackets were another scam we couldn't afford and I didn't want.

He brought Sigmund to the US for speaking engagements both to get his rather poor Uncle some money and as a foot in the door to sell his techniques to big corporations and influential people.

I have long maintained that the constant over-exposure to evil in the media changes people's expectations and how they interact with others- especially strangers. It creates a society of isolated people. We have developed an unhealthy culture and the current dysfunction should not be a great surprise.

They are not mutually exclusive ideas. It is more accurate to state you're not JUST the customer of the media creators, you are also a (potential) customer of others with financial (and in many cases, political) interests in the media product you are viewing/hearing. Due to the existence of the latter, that means you are *also* a product that the media creator leverages to help fund their project.

It's the same dynamic as Facebook. You're not just a customer of Facebook, you're also a product of Facebook, that Facebook leverages to fund their operation. Because others want you to be THEIR customer as well as Facebook's, so they pay Facebook in that hope.

Other than that, it's all quite astute and accurate.

Facebook sells access to your eyeballs and to data about you that can be used to put the most targeted offers and messages in your feed.

Facebook's customers have included: Samsung, AT&T, MSFT, Unilever, WalMart, Nestle, American Express, Starbucks, Coke, Ford, etc.

https://www.businessinsider.com/top-advertisers-on-facebook-2013-11

in order for you to want to engage with it

Even if you are not paying Facebook a subscription fee, you are still A customer, you're just not THE ONLY customer. You, and the advertisers, are both customers of Facebook. Simply put, it's not the case that any given business can have one, and only one, class of customer.

Also, if you click on an ad on Facebook, and you end up buying something from the vendor (what's known as a "conversion" in the internet sales lexicon), then (very often) some small % of the money you paid for the product will be forked over to Facebook.

This dynamic means that, yes, in fact, you ARE a customer of Facebook. Much like you are considered "the customer" the moment you walk into the shoe store, regardless of whether or not, on that particular day, you walked out with a pair of shoes that you paid for.

Once you clue into product placement scenes that show a real brand, you can't NOT see it all the time.
Is it Yellowstone that has prominently arranged scenes for Coors beer??????
The film producers aren't even subtle about it.......
Commercialism, Capitalism, Corporations coming at the public constantly......The average consumer must be bombarded with a thousand messages a day......especially while out driving.....

Not everyone in the movie industry is a "limousine liberal" like Rush Limbaugh and other white wing fascist talk shows have been throwing around for decades. There is a ridiculous amount of fascism. People like Stallone, Woods, and so on are people who absolutely are the antithesis of what we've been led to for years.

People like Robert DeNiro and Steve Martin fit the stereotype, but you know what? They're good actors.

My wife and I usually subscribe to two or three no-advertising streaming services and we have a large library of DVDs. We don't have cable, satellite, or broadcast television. Our current television has never been set up to receive any "channels" and it's not connected to the internet or an antenna. It simply plays whatever devices are plugged into it; usually the DVD player, some streaming dongle, or a laptop. The oldest streaming devices we had didn't fill the screen with "free" advertising supported crap, but those were declared obsolete and the streaming services stopped supporting them. Now it's a question of which streaming devices and services you want spying on you. Pick your poisons or play a DVD you bought for cash in a thrift store.

My parents met while working in Hollywood. They were artists with day jobs and were most certainly "Hollywood Liberals." Their friends were eccentric. Many were gay and comfortable enough in my parents home to be openly so, public displays of affection, stories of broken romances, and such.

I worked in Hollywood for five days as a little kid and that was the end of my Hollywood career. My mom says I'd stare at important people as if they were interesting insects, which would make them very uncomfortable. They would not call back. My grandma and her sister loved Hollywood, knew people, and wanted to share that joy with us. My mom counterbalanced that with a certain cynicism about the industry and told us explicitly how to avoid predators, maybe too explicitly, but it didn't stop her from working for your "Octopus."

My sister has made brief appearances on television over the years, usually small parts. If you know where to look, which episode of a television series she was in, you can still find her on television. Some of these shows were quite popular. It was not a career for her, but she likes having a union card.

I don't think Hollywood is some kind of sinister PsyOp. It's more a reflection of a culture that is already a mess. I was raised in such a rich interactive environment that it's almost impossible for me to be bored. I'm very capable of making my own trouble in any situation, for better or for worse. Many people are not so fortunate. Television, and now the advertising driven internet, fills some kind of void. (I don't see advertising on the internet. DU is my only "social media" and I pay for a star membership here to make the ads go away.)

Yes, there are people exploiting that void, but they'd have much less success if we paid more attention to early childhood development and rejected the anti-intellectualism that is so prevalent in our society. Children are naturally born scientists and artists, endlessly curious. Many U.S. American sub-cultures, mostly religious, beat this innate curiosity out of their children, or neglect their intellectual development, which leaves a void to be filled with crap religions, crap politics, crap television, crap consumerism, crap advertising, crap AI, crap porn, and so on.

It's not a bad thing to call out the crap, the psychological manipulations, it's a better thing to show people alternatives. I'm not very good at that other than to say I'm living a very fine life without traditional television, without Microsoft or Apple or Android, without streaming or radio music, without advertising that moves or makes noise, without social media... and I still find plenty of interesting things to do, which includes writing posts like this on DU.