This diary began as a comment responding to a comment in Ray Pensador's most recent diary on how propaganda controls people and ballooned into a diary of its own. While I do not at all discount the power of propaganda-- or, as it's called in critical theory circles, "ideology" --to control people, I do think we have a tendency to overestimate the power of distorted beliefs to control people, thereby overlooking far more powerful things that compel people to tolerate oppressive conditions. If this is true, then it has significant implications for what political activism should be engaged in seeking to produce a more just and equitable society. Follow me below the fold to see what I have in mind.
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