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06 Oct 2010 22:34

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Politics: If you haven’t seen the Donald Duck/Glenn Beck mashup yet …

  • The creator of this new classic has earned a full-on scornful reaction from Glenn Beck, who says that it’s “some of the best well-made propaganda I have ever seen.” And it is well-made. We disagree on the propaganda part. We think it’s less an attempt to attack Beck and more an attempt to make us question the political climate as a whole. Beck is just the easiest example of how this works. There’s no reason the creator couldn’t have used Hannity or Maddow or anyone else, left or right. The point is not simply the message, but the way that one hears and instantly accepts the message. To us, all this clip is saying is to remain skeptical of and diversify your sources of information. Just for sake of contrarian value, here’s the D.C. Examiner’s take, which is essentially that we should be questioning the politicians, not the talk-radio blabbers. source

13 Jun 2010 12:16

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Culture: 100 Years of Propaganda: Art + Message = Huge impact

  • Smashing Magazine has this amazing gallery of various works of propaganda over the last 100 years. This particular piece, from Russia, is the work of El Lissitzky, whose works greatly influenced the art world in general. source

08 Jul 2009 22:27

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Offbeat, World: “Kim Jong Ale” shows us the softer side of propaganda

  • Apparently North Korea isn’t all about making plans to rule the world. A new ad run on state television (with predictably *awesome* graphics) promotes beer drinking, saying it gives you good health and contains protein. Now that’s something we could totally get behind. source