Reply #10: Joseph Goebbels would be taking notes from the US if he were alive [View All]

[Selatius]

Because Goebbels could never get those kinds of numbers without explicit state control over the news media.

Today, this can be done by removing the state from the organ of information dissemination and replacing it with corporate control instead. In this manner, we see that this newer model is more impervious to attacks by critics asserting that we live in an authoritarian environment. How could that possibly be if the news media is not state run and if there are still elections?

The two are intrinsically linked. The people can be made to legitimize the ruling regime through a careful campaign of propaganda by omission by utilizing allies in the corporate sector who control the corporate news outlets. The goal is the same in both the older model and the newer one: Consolidation of power, the silencing of dissent.

The key difference is in methodology. The newer model is far less overt, far more subtle compared to the crude machinations of previous rightwing authoritarian regimes.