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this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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Communism
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I would argue that it is significantly more free in socialist countries, because you have the opportunity to learn about capitalism and communism. You get stories about the struggles of the working class in mainstream media, and develop class consciousness.
Whereas in capitalist countries, you only get to hear one side, and media is only created to support the ideologies of the regime.
You ever wonder why Hollywood movies are so formulaic and repetitive? It’s because they all follow the monomyth story structure, to subliminally promote capitalist ideals and individualism.
It’s not until that you understand the purpose of propaganda, the organization of propaganda, and the propaganda model, that you can appreciate how prevalent it is and how difficult it is to escape it.
True but at the same time you don´t read particularly much about corrupt communist party bigwigs in socialist media, do you?
I agree with that but do you seriously believe that´s any different in socialism?
Of course, that is trivial.
Agreed, all states do propaganda no matter the politic system.
You do. A lot. Like a lot a lot. Some of it’s true and some of it’s fake to gain political points.
You admitted yourself that people in communism advocated for capitalism. Where do you think they learnt about that?
Universities in the USSR taught Keynesian economics alongside Marxist theory. They still teach that in China.
It’s not trivial, it’s not benign. It’s propaganda. It formulates how people live their lives, because if that’s all they’re exposed to, then people use said story structure to plan out their own lives and to make big decisions. It is a major part of the propaganda state apparatus.
Ain’t nobody controls the media like they do in capitalism. If you can list a piece of media for consumption, it’s probably propaganda. If you can list an organization, it probably has some purpose in the propaganda apparatus.
Recommended reading: propaganda by Edward Bernays Inventing reality by Michael Parenti Manufactured consent by Noam Chomsky
Recommended watching: Anything by Maggy Mae Fish
Seriously? I honestly had no idea. Can you link me a few examples?
Thank you for the interesting recommendations!
Being open about corruption is a communist tradition. Xinhua continuously publishes articles on corruption.
Google “English.news.cn corruption party members”
Going back to Lenin, his works are mostly rebuttals against the policies of the second international. Stalin’s essay “burkharin’s group and the right deviation”. Khrushchev’s secret speech.
And that’s just some of the famous ones.
Thanks for letting me know this. Very interesting.
Not only criticism but self criticism is important
I agree with you. We should never stop to work on improving ourselves.
This is a crucial element of Marxism. Those who weren't very good at it unfortunately let their socialism dissolve, demonstrating why it's so crucial and why you find a strong emphasis on it in the surviving socialist states.
If you're interested and prefer to start with audio-visual, Parenti has a few lectures on his book(s) (there's another one about entertainment media: Make-Believe Media iirc). They're on YouTube. Alternatively a lemmygrad user made a podcast with them if you preferred that.
That's because they don't exist.
Yeah, right 🤣
Can you name any?
Google “English.news.cn corruption party members”
I see your point and have been following along all of these conversations. I just wanted to add that In The Name of the People (2017) is an incredible Chinese (sorta-)cop show wherein we follow anti-corruption detectives who arrest those same bigwigs you mention. It rules, and is an example of this in a contemporary socialist society rather than something from 50 years ago in Soviet media or whatever. I recommend looking into it!
My mind about this detail was already changed by some constructive comments here, as you have probably read. Thank you for the additional hint, sounds like an interesting show. Please dm me, if you know where I could stream it with English subs in acceptable quality.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A74YChOkSpY
Is it this one?
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Good bot!