Propaganda: The Manufacture of Consent • 2017

Category: Economics | Torrent: | Subtitle:

What makes an entire country take self destructive decisions of eating unhealthy, smoking cigarettes & going to war? In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ran on a platform strongly opposing US entry into WWI. But just a few months after taking office, the United States declared war on Germany. Soon after, the American people, so firmly opposed to the war just a year earlier, were enthusiastic supporters. What happened? The short answer: Sustained consumption of propaganda! PROPAGANDA: THE MANUFACTURE OF CONSENT is a revealing documentary about how public relations grew out of wartime propaganda-and a portrait of one of the key architects of the field, Edward Bernays. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays refined the techniques used so successfully during the war to sell products to consumers, and ultimately to sell capitalism itself to workers. Public relations was also critical in building support for the New Deal, and in the pushback against it from the National Association of Manufacturers, which created materials including films aimed at children on the glories of manufacturing. Bacon and eggs as part of a hearty breakfast? The work of Bernays on behalf of a bacon company. Cigarettes as a sign of women's liberation? Bernays, again. Casting the democratically elected government of Guatemala as a Communist threat to justify US invasion on behalf of the United Fruit Company? Once more, Bernays. There was nothing shadowy about Bernays. He wrote a book detailing his techniques and discusses them in an archival interview with Bill Moyers from 1983, where we see his pride in hijacking the women's suffrage movement in order to sell more cigarettes—one of many illuminating moments in this film. Featuring Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Public Relations Museum co-founder Shelley Spector, historian Stuart Ewen, sociologist David Miller, and Bernays' daughter Anne, PROPAGANDA offers an insightful look into the development of public relations techniques, and how they continue to affect us today.

Make a donation

Buy a brother a hot coffee? Or a cold beer?

Hope you're finding these documentaries fascinating and eye-opening. It's just me, working hard behind the scenes to bring you this enriching content.

Running and maintaining a website like this takes time and resources. That's why I'm reaching out to you. If you appreciate what I do and would like to support my efforts, would you consider "buying me a coffee"?

Donation addresses

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

patreon.com

BTC: bc1q8ldskxh4x9qnddhcrgcun8rtvddeldm2a07r2v

ETH: 0x5CCAAA1afc5c5D814129d99277dDb5A979672116

With your donation through , you can show your appreciation and help me keep this project going. Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a significant impact. It goes directly towards covering server costs.

You might also like

The Third Industrial Revolution

The global economy is in crisis. The exponential exhaustion of natural resources, declining productivity, slow growth, rising unemployment, and steep inequality, forces us to rethink our economic models. Where do we go from here? In this feature-length documentary, social and economic theorist Jeremy Rifkin lays out a road map to usher in a new economic system. A Third Industrial Revolution is unfolding with the convergence of three pivotal technologies: an ultra-fast 5G communication internet, a renewable energy internet, and a driverless mobility internet, all connected to the Internet of Things embedded across society and the environment. This 21st century smart digital infrastructure is giving rise to a radical new sharing economy that is transforming the way we manage, power and move economic life.

2017 • Economics

Denial

FRONTLINE’s three-part series The Power of Big Oil examines the fossil fuel industry’s history of denying climate change by delaying action and casting doubt on scientific research. This first part charts the fossil fuel industry’s early research on climate change and investigates the efforts to sow seeds of doubt about the science.

S1E1The Power of Big Oil • 2022 • Economics

Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery

Cullen Hoback investigates the origins of Bitcoin and its anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, exploring the potential of this cryptocurrency on the global financial system and who could hold immense power if it became mainstream.

2024 • Economics

American Experience: Command and Control

Command and Control presents the terrifying, true story of what can happen when the weapons built to protect us threaten to become the very source of our own destruction. Based on The New York Times bestseller by Eric Schlosser the film tells the story of a 1980 accident at a Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas in minute-by-minute detail through the accounts of Air Force personnel, weapon designers, and first responders who were there, revealing the incredible chain of events that brought America to the brink of nuclear disaster. In so doing, the film explores the great dilemma that the United States has faced since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you manage weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them?

2016 • Economics

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency has made people billionaires, but is digital cash the next revolution? Learn about this anonymous currency and why it's so coveted.

S1E5Explained • 2018 • Economics

The Decade the Rich Won

The people with power in Britain reveal how their decisions shook our politics, transformed our economy and reshaped society in the decade following the 2008 financial crisis. Chapter 1: The Government and the Bank of England took drastic action to save the UK economy in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Insiders from the world of finance reveal how decisions made to solve the crisis allowed them to 'make out like bandits". From bailing out the banks to pursuing a faster, deeper austerity than any other country, Britain's policymakers shatter the status quo in a desperate bid to save the economy. This first of two programmes features first-hand accounts from key players, reliving the moments when the big decisions were taken. Chapter 2: The government and the Bank of England are forced to react to the economic shocks brought on by Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. Theresa May enters office in the aftermath of Brexit, setting her sights on tax-dodgers, bloated executive pay and unethical multi-national companies. But as May struggles to implement Brexit, wealth inequality and executive pay are increasing while average wages are barley growing, sparking anger and protests. After May fails to get her Brexit deal through Parliament, Boris Johnson enters office promising to "level up" the UK economy but his plan is derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

2022 • Economics