Tuesday, June 24, 2008

State Propaganda

Do those horrible statist ad campaigns like "Click it or Ticket" or the local New Mexican abomination "100 Days and Nights of Summer" make you think of historical statist propaganda? They certainly do remind me of such things. Tyranny in catchy blurbs.

What would it have been like in 1930s Germany if their government had used similar campaigns? For Jews, the "Stars or Bars" campaign would have reminded them to wear their Star of David patch. "1 Night of Sparkling Shards" could have gotten more government sympathizers to join in for Krystalnacht. Make up a catchy slogan and anything can be made to seem reasonable to some people, I suppose.

You may accuse me of overblowing the situation with the comparison. Maybe, but if so if is only a matter of scale, not of substance. Once people begin to accept the unacceptable, anything is possible.

Statism isn't "nicer" today just because it uses actors portraying LEOs (Liberty Eradication Officers) in TV ads to indoctrinate or frighten us into accepting oppression. Hitler's disadvantage was that he didn't have the US government's ad men working for him. Oh, and he was probably even more evil (but give them time).

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