Herding the Sheep

[Hannah Bell]

Financial insider and commentator Yves Smith wrote an essay last week entitled “MSM Reporting as Propaganda” arguing that the government has been using propaganda to make people think that things are getting better, no one is angry, and – therefore – no one should get upset:

The message, quite overtly, is: if you are pissed, you are in a minority. The country has moved on. Things are getting better, get with the program…

Per the social psychology research, this “you are in a minority, you are wrong” message DOES dissuade a lot of people. It is remarkably poisonous. And it discourages people from taking concrete action.

Is Smith right? And even if she is, isn’t “propaganda” too strong a word?

...I can’t deny that the Tarp Inspector General said that Paulson and Bernanke falsely stated that the big banks receiving Tarp money were healthy, when they were not.

But that’s not propaganda . . . its just positive thinking, right?

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/10/guest-post-herding-the-sheep.html

[zbdent]

1. well, hey ... all through the Bush years, we were told "The economy is better than what you

think you see!"

("Who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?")