More yada from me:
Not expecting a reply as you’ve made your point well and I’ve laboured mine (!) - you’ve been very articulate end polite, so all cool. However, I’m often not as clear as I wish I could be, so more waffle: I’ve essentially been trying to point out the phenomena whereby young people see this Chomsky doc and their reaction is “Wow”, as if they hadn’t hitherto realised that advertisers and the media try and manipulate them… Like they’re shocked to hear this.
Of course (in defence of Chomsky) there were genuine historical figures like Edward Bernays, and one is not suggesting they didn’t exist: one is merely suggesting the following:
People often know that they’re being sold to. A good example is this: When there’s a TV commercial on, people don’t all immediately walk of the door like robots and buy the product. Many are seduced by the advertisement, to varying degrees, and many are not. Some notice the manipulation, and comment that they know someone is attempting to manipulate them.
Even Chomsky publisher’s must have advertised his book. When he went on a discussion show, sometimes it was to plug his book. When he did a lecture tour, they would have put a poster outside the hall, advertising the talk. Chomsky evidently didn’t complain about this advertising though... Anyway - aside from this, sometimes advertising serves the purpose of simply informing the viewer that a new thing exists.
Google is only funded through advertising. Are all the people who watch "Manufacturing Consent" so disgusted by advertising and the media that they are going to forgo using the media? Are you giving up Google? All the people that pat themselves on the back for digging Chomsky (or digging this film in the link) still carry on using Google and watching TV. So one must surely conclude from this that they aren’t that disgusted by it all. If they really were, how come they continue to sustain this whole sordid spectacle by Googling things?
Chomsky had product to sell, and this “the media are all evil” theory of his is one of the things he was selling. He stretched it out to cover lots of pages. He just seems to me like a bright guy with an unfortunate bee in his bonnet about the media, and an ideology he can’t shake. I don’t find the things he says (or the way he exaggerates) to be a revelation. I already know organisations are attempting to manipulate me, and I don’t think it’s a big deal.
Cheers