Thread by @docrussjackson

In 1850, 95% of the goods the average American used were self-manufactured & 5% purchased. By 1950 the equation was more than reversed. Why?

Cory Wimberley’s important & timely book ‘How #Propaganda Became Public Relations’ provides sophisticated answers.
blog.apaonline.org/2020/07/06/rec…

His book looks at #propaganda as occupying a privileged place in the invention of corporations, their ‘publics’ (target audiences), & the ‘relations of government’ between the two.

His book explores how #propaganda was born, how it works, & how it has masked the bulk of its operations by rebranding itself as public relations. Wimberley uses archival materials & a wide variety of sources to mount a genealogical challenge to two commonplaces about propaganda:

First, modern #propaganda did not originate in the state & was never primarily located in the state; instead, it began & flourished as a for-profit service for businesses.

Further, propaganda is not focused on public beliefs & does not operate mainly through lies & deceit;

#Propaganda is an 'apparatus of govt' that aims to create the publics that will freely undertake the conduct its clients’ desire: businesses have used propaganda since 1900 to construct the labouring, consuming, & voting publics that they needed to secure & grow their operations.

Over the last one hundred & twenty years or so, corporations have become the most numerous & well-funded apparatuses of government in the West, operating privately & without democratic accountability.

Wimberly explains why liberal strategies of resistance have clearly failed - badly - & a new focus on creating 'mass subjectivity' through democratic means is essential to countering #propaganda.

At least $26 TRILLION is held offshore.

His book begins from the position that #propaganda was an apparatus for transforming all the relationships its clients had with the world & in turn transforming those clients & the publics they governed.

His book offers a sophisticated & refreshing analysis that will be of interest to everyone concerned about corporate #propaganda – that is, everyone who wants a fairer, greener, more equal, peaceful, & less polarized world.

counterpunch.org/2020/07/15/pro…