3 ms·

Let me recommend the book "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You" - despite the rather silly title that book is an extremely thorough historical examination of PR, Astro

Let me recommend the book "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You" - despite the rather silly title that book is an extremely thorough historical examination of PR, AstroTurfing and in general a rather shocking unveiling of an aspect corporate power that most people know very little about - from Edward Bernais right up until about when the internet really took over. Lobbying, policy writing, press release creating, corrupting and local power infiltrating hidden complexes was already completely all encompassing and dangerous to everything "scientific" and everything "true" 20 years ago. I can't even begin to imagine how advanced that system has become today with social media, fake grassroots, corporate sponsored think tanks and targeted advertisement. Rather scary.

amelius 6y ago
Interesting, but we need a book that explains what we can do about it.
- klyrs 6y ago
  Simple. Overthrow both dominant political parties in the US and replace them with altruistic "save-the-world" type politicians who are impervious to lobbying/bribery. Er, nevermind, not simple.
- loopz 6y ago
  Stop your support of it. Simple.
deleted 6y ago
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floor2 6y ago
This comment shows the same strange (to me) bias that I see so often now, of using "corporate" as a scary or negative thing. Would a think tank sponsored by a religious organization be inherently better than one with corporate sponsors? Is lobbying by the prison guards union more beneficial to society than lobbying by a trade group? Is the grassroots anti-vax movement more trustworthy than the corporate vaccine producers?