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Read about the origins of Corporate propaganda and PR

Take the Red Pill to "Escape the Matrix" of neoliberal propaganda!

A book from Stuart Ewen about the origins of corporate propaganda

This one is a little bit "out there"

More about Escaping the Matrix of neoliberal propaganda

More about propaganda and how our society was molded by money around the idea of corporate and govt propaganda

How they do fight back against the forces of money in Denmark

A short history of the struggle between the rich and the rest of us

Look, I know where you are coming from. I had much the same ideas 10 years ago. I hardly know where to start with my reply to you, as it took me 10 years to unlearn all that crap I ingested.

One viewpoint might be to try and see govt as a machine. There are many types of machines, and in my life I have studied, operated and designed many types of machines,from nuclear power plant, to cars, to analog and digital circuits to software systems. Sometimes machines need to be complicated if we want to be able to accomplish a goal.

Another perspective might be to understand that culture may be evolved and formed through outside forces, and that there are forces in this world which may in general gain if you and I lose.

Here ya go. Read these:

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This is called supply-side economics; it's a nice concept, but it doesn't work. The problem is two-fold: people are greedy, and manufacturing techniques have made human labor more and more obsolete.

Having more money in the bank does not make one more likely to start a business; why risk throwing money down the toilet on a failed startup when you can save it for a rainy day? Likewise, having more money does not make one more likely to consume more. Everyone needs certain manufactured goods, but those can be produced without human labor; that doesn't create any jobs. But the big-ticket items, by their very nature, are only available to a limited market; a small demand would not create many jobs either.* The US tried this in the 80s and it didn't work, and there's no indication that it would work now.


* and don't think that an across-the-board tax cut would help the situation. Big-ticket items would rise in price accordingly, following the classic supply and demand rules.

How much would an extra $16 billion help really with the amount already spent on welfare?

it is hell coming back to a country that is effectively run by petty (and not so petty) criminals

Oh, please! Spare me the drama.

I say this from the perpective of someone unfortunate enough to have been born north of the Canada/U.S. border

Well, let me say from the perspective of someone fortunate enough to have been born in Canada, that you are so full of sh!t, you're a blond turned brunette.

It's still horrible here.

Ok, Dude... do a reality check and compare the U.S. and Canada. Canada could do better, but still does better than the U.S. in almost every area, except perhaps purchasing power (which is obviously your primary focus).

• Hitler was originally elected.

This is simply not true.

However, if you review the history of what happened with Hitler, it actually supports your points about the necessity to limit Government power.

Hitler used terror and backroom deals to gain power, after losing two elections. After he had the power, he could use the institutions of German Government to take absolute power over every aspect of German life.

So, even if you trust the Government and the elected leaders, remember that these institutions can fall into the hands of evil people, which is why the Governmental powers must be limited.

The American Founders did see the dangers of mobocracy. The Constitution explicitly enumerates the powers of the US Government and it is difficult to change. Regional interests are supported through the Senate and the Electoral College is supposed to provide a check against widespread electoral abuse.

Unfortunately, much of what the Government does these days is not covered by Constitutional powers, with 'the people' clamoring for more and more power to be invested in the Government all the time.

No I'm talking about American terrorism. The Bush family has strong ties to bin Laden's family. And the Saudi government, one which is widely regarded as repressive as the Taleban, is one of the US' closest allies. Including all the family of bin Laden, with the obvious exception of Osama.

As for the thought that violation of copyright supports terrorism; even if this ridiculous suggestion were true, would that be a reason to punish kids that buy pirated stuff or rip their own stuff? Because that's who the MPAA and MS will try to punish.

Hitler was not elected.

And, although I don't have a convenient link, neither was Hussein. The Baath party took power in a coup, and the elections held since then have been a sham.

The CIA Atrocities Timeline.

Enjoy.

Also i couldn't find the link but the CIA was planning to commit terrorist attacks on italy and then get an infltrated leftist group to claim credit to discredit the communist party. I lost the link, but the CIA Atrocities timeline does breifly address the CIAs corruption of italian democracy.

The scary part is history seems to be repeating istelf:

President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947, creating the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Council. The CIA is accountable to the president through the NSC -- there is no democratic or congressional oversight. Its charter allows the CIA to "perform such other functions and duties... as the National Security Council may from time to time direct." This loophole opens the door to covert action and dirty tricks.

Sounds kinda familiar doesn't it?

Except the new agency will target americans instead of foreigners.

Another choice qoute:

The Association for Responsible Dissent estimates that by 1987, 6 million people had died as a result of CIA covert operations. (2) Former State Department official William Blum correctly calls this an "American Holocaust."

You thought the communists did some nasty stuff? They don't have squat on the capitalists.

And who precisely was it who placed an open cup of coffee between her legs in a moving vehicle? Could she have been more stupid? Why is it that I continually have to pay for your stupidity?

Sure. Go into the computer business. Manufacture computers with a big red button on the front, which when you press it makes the four sticks of dynamite inside the case explode. When someone sues you for their kid being killed, tell them that they were stupid for pushing big red buttons without knowing what they do.

If McDonald's had been following the established (restaurant) industry practice of serving coffee hot but not hazardously so, Ms. Liebeck putting it between her legs would have been risking stained pants and perhaps an Uncomfortable Crotch Experience. It was McDonald's considered and deliberate choice to continue selling hazardously hot coffee even after having burned 700 people with it that made them liable.

Products liability litigation does not lead to safer products, only more expensive ones.

Really? Is it that much more expensive to make a car which won't explode? If customer-hurting companies have to raise their prices in order to pay off damages to the people they've hurt, then their non-hurtful competitors will be able to offer more competitive prices. Hurting your customers will no longer be cheaper.

IF YOU DELIBERATELY, KNOWINGLY PUT PEOPLE IN HARM'S WAY, YES, YOU ARE FUCKING RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENS! IT'S REALLY THAT SIMPLE, DUMBASS! IT'S THE SAME AS DRIVING DRUNK! OR TOSSING JARS OF NITROGLYCERINE AT PEOPLE AND SAYING "HERE, CATCH!"

Ahem, pardon me, I got a little carried away there. (I'm not even supposed to be here today...)

Expecting customers to bear the burden of being hurt by products, in order to keep corporate costs down, is absurd. Allowing corporations to blow up, burn, and poison people to save a buck has no place under the rule of law.

Incidently, neither the UK or the US is a particularly 'free' place, by neutral standards.

Hitler elected? HA! As everyone knows Hitler was placed in power as a puppet by the world-wide Jewish conspiracy... actually he was... well just read this

You might note that few would say American industry has exploited Japan and its workers, infact American industry has been damaged by competition. The idea that globalization has anything to do with exploitation should take note of this.

I'm sure there are some who equate globalization with exploitation, but anyone with any brains will be more discerning than that.

In particular, whether you get exploitation with globalization depends on the approach used.

In the case of Japan, it's not clear to me that U.S. corporations had a large hand in its reconstruction and economic prosperity. I doubt very much that U.S. industry attempted to install and/or maintain a brutal dictatorship in Japan in order to keep labor prices down there, if they used Japan as a source of cheap labor at all.

What many people seem to object to the most is the exploitation of people who live under brutal, despotic governments by way of greasing the palms of individuals within those governments such that the people have no chance of improving their situation. Certainly the CIA has helped these American corporations do just that. What makes you believe that things are really any different now?

Point being that I don't believe Japan is a terribly good example to use to support the way many believe globalization will be implemented. Quite the opposite, in fact, in large part because I have little reason to believe that the U.S. will exercise its considerable might to implement democracy -- doing so will make it harder for our corporations to exploit cheap labor in the long run, just as it did in Japan. You can bet they won't make that mistake again.

The Concorde has a history of tire problems. When the crash happened last year, it was due to debris from the Concorde's own blown tire perforating the fuel tank, which led to the ignition of the leaking fuel.

Now, I'm no aeronautical engineer, but i'd say that when a flying chunk of blown tire can punch a hole in your fuel tank and lead to the loss of the entire aircraft and the death of all souls aboard, that's a pretty Goddamned major design flaw.

You might as well have said, "...the Ford Pinto's tendency to go up in flames was always due to a rear-impact, not a major design flaw."

~Philly

I'd trust this stuff a lot more than a lot of the things we have trusted on the road in the past .

The problem with most web sites is that their left- or right- wing biases tend to make intelligent appraisal difficult. They've all got facts, statistics, and examples which support their points of view - which just leaves those that already are left-wing to become more left wing, and those that are already right wing to become more right wing. It takes a concerted effort to find the truth (which, like everything, is somewhere in the middle).

If you want a site which tries to have a practical, middle-of-the-road view of the world, try this one...
http://www.korpios.org/resurgent/tenets.htm

It has a good outline of the middle ground between left-wing (socialism) and right-wing (corporate capitalism).

As for the anarchists... they're basically saying ignorance is bliss, and people were happy and generous before civilisation comes around. Which may be true in some ways - since happiness is such a subjective thing, it's difficult to say. Humans are probably happiest when they're in love and are raising kids... but I'm not sure how happy primitives were when they lost one child to the harsh winter, their mate and two of their kids to childbirth, and are blind (no glasses), toothless (no dental care), and dying of appendicitus on their 30th birthday...

Humans tend to find happiness to be a relative thing, and always find fault with their current situation - even in paradise, people would manage to screw it up. But by any objective standard, people today (most especially in 1st-world countries) have the best living conditions of any time in history, and that's due to the whole "civilization" thing... we just don't know how to appreciate it. Before civilization, death was a much more common and bigger worry than anything we've got to worry about today...
--
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.