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Faith  Suspended Member (Idle past 1472 days) Posts: 35298 From: Nevada, USA Joined: |
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Author | Topic: The Right Side of the News | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined:
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Every day, I become more convinced that Trump and/or his team have read and embraced this masterwork on propaganda:
Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. (...) All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. (...) The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another. Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively and, in so far as it is favourable to the other side, present it according to the theoretical rules of justice; yet it must present only that aspect of the truth which is favourable to its own side. (...) The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward. Twitter could not be a more perfectly adapted delivery system for Trumps propaganda if it tried.Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined: |
You don't have to believe every crazy idea that escapes Trump's lips They kind of do, though. Once they accept one lie is in fact a lie, then they can't hold back the avalanche of all the others. Once the illusion cracks, it will shatter. Edited by vimesey, : No reason given.Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined:
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I've no doubt that the crowds do indeed see Trump the way you do. After all, why else would they attend ?
Sadly though, history has taught us that large cheering crowds at rallies are not necessarily a sign that the showman on the stage will be remembered for all of the good and joy he brought to the world.Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined: |
It would be more accurate to refer to the terms in which he is portrayed, rather than the terms in which he is described, but I'll leave that aside.
I wasn't suggesting that crowds tell us how successful a leader will be. I was saying that the fact that a leader draws crowds does not necessarily endorse that leader's greatness as a person. As history has shown us, on many more than one occasion. And you will find that all of those crowds spoke of the showman on the podium in nothing less than glowing terms. Again, this is not necessarily an endorsement of that person's character. People get things wrong (as history shows us) and don't like to admit it.Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined: |
There was an interesting piece this morning on the BBC radio news about the Democrats' success in the recent elections, most importantly in previously solid Republican states.
I won't recite the detail, but the BBC's US correspondent's view was that these results were sharpening the questioning by the Republican politicians, which had already begun, as to the weakening and perhaps even the nascent toxicity of the Trump brand. Is this a fair opinion, or wishful thinking at this stage ?Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined: |
If you were in charge nobody who claims innocence would ever go to prison, amirite? Only if they're Republicans. If they're Democrats, they're going down.Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined: |
Stop using logic and reason all the time - you know it undermines your case ;-)
Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined: |
There is nothing fascistic or totalitarian about nationalism Here is a link to the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on the links between nationalism and fascism. You're arguing against the Encycolpaedia Britannica. Good luck with that. fascism - Extreme nationalism | Britannica (Also worth noting the following excerpt from the site):
Nazismcondemned Marxist and liberal internationalisms as threats to German national unity. Fascists in general wanted to replace internationalist class solidarity with nationalist class collaboration. Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined:
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Terrorism is endemic to Islamicism All these years socialising and working with Muslims, and I've clearly not been noticing all the times they've blown me up, shot me and stabbed me. You would have thought I'd have noticed, but clearly there must be some miracle going on, where every time it happens, I get resurrected and healed and my memory gets wiped. From here on in, I'm keeping my camera phone switched on !Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined:
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On what basis would anyone who hates, believe they hated the wrong things ?
Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined: |
You do know that a deficit is not the same as total debt, don’t you ?
Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined: |
The deficit is the amount, per year, that a government spends in excess of what it receives by way of taxes and other sources of income.
The debt is the total amount that the government is due to pay back on its total borrowing - in simple terms, in an economy running regular deficits, the total of those deficits over the years that a deficit has been running. This page explains it: What's the difference between the U.S. deficit and the national debt? | HowStuffWorks If you run a deficit during a year in which you make the fiscal decisions, it’s your call. (To be fair, in the US economy, you pretty much have to run a deficit - but the size of it is your call).Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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vimesey Member (Idle past 101 days) Posts: 1398 From: Birmingham, England Joined:
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It’s inexplicable, but chillingly resonant.
Primo Levi, Holocaust survivor:
Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions. We must be listened to: above and beyond our personal experience, we have collectively witnessed a fundamental unexpected event, fundamental precisely because unexpected, not foreseen by anyone. It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere. Edited by vimesey, : No reason given.Could there be any greater conceit, than for someone to believe that the universe has to be simple enough for them to be able to understand it ?
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