Select this to read [the Whole Story].I looked out my dormitory window and watched state troopers on horseback charge into a peaceful demonstration for the re-legalization of cannabis. They chased down women and the school paper's photographer, held them on the ground, and kicked and beat them, and smashed the camera. Of all the kids detained, only members of the campus Food Co-op were arrested, though they had nothing to do with organizing the demo. No account of the incident, with hundreds of witnesses, ever appeared in print. That was when I realized the Chomsky-Herman Propaganda Model was reality. I didn't find out its name until almost two decades later.
I have met many other social justice activists since then. Every one of them has a story of how the reality was made personal for them. It's clear that the propaganda stream in which we live is too powerful for people to escape by being presented with factual arguments alone. Something really offensive has to happen in front of your face for you to break free of it. Perhaps the movement against the Vietnam war grew so big because it happened in so many faces: everybody lost a friend or relative there, or had a career ruined by it.
Select this to read [the Whole Story].
