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A quote by Joseph Goebbels: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for
by chris_mahan 13y ago
A quote by Joseph Goebbels:
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
Who was Joseph Goebbels? Per Wikipedia: Paul Joseph Goebbels (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels)
- spoiledtechie 13y agoI can't upvote this enough...
- redofrac 13y agoI wouldn't put so much emphasis on the source: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels#Misattributed http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels#Misattributed
- chris_mahan 13y agoWell, if people go read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lie then perhaps the light will start to shine in their minds. <sarcasm>And what? You dare to question the absolute veracity of wikipedia? You will be sent to the Re-Education Camp immediately?</sarcasm> <notsarcasm>Having to use the sarcasm tag means enough people are unable to recognize sarcasm. I blame the education system. It's a damn shame though.</notsarcasm>
- redofrac 13y agoThe sentiment has value, but it feels misleading to need to back it up by aligning the idea with the Nazi Germany. (The closest quote by Goebbels appears to be about England rather than Germany, not sure if that makes it more or less relevant here)
- criley 13y agoOf course, blame the education system for your own poor skill as a writer. Sarcasm remains, as it always has, difficult to pull in written language. Always funny to see bad writers blame their readers though.
- soperj 13y agoSarcasm is a word that has been so misused by Americans, that people have tried to actually re-write the definition. -the use of irony to mock or convey contempt - It does not mean 'joking'.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- joyeuse6701 13y agoInteresting, there are still correctly attributed points that fit this whole debacle: "But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success." "War Propaganda", in volume 1, chapter 6 of Mein Kampf (1925), by Adolf Hitler I'm referring to the constant reuse of the term 'no direct access to servers'cough propaganda cough
- ginko 13y agoThere are people who don't know who Goebbels was?
- jlgreco 13y agoHopefully not, but I have stopped being surprised by such things.
- wavefunction 13y agoThere are plenty of people all over the world who would not recognize the name. They might even express their appreciation for his sentiment, as well.
- RivieraKid 13y agoYes, me for example and I don't think there's anything wrong about it.
- cema 13y agoThere is nothing wrong with admitting it.
- samolang 13y agoThere is nothing wrong with the fact that he didn't know it either. Only willful ignorance is a sin, not accidental ignorance. Nobody can know everything, you shouldn't judge someone for prioritizing different knowledge than you.
- dllthomas 13y agoThough some encouragement to sufficiently prioritize basic facts about significant events in history might not be inappropriate.
- jlgreco 13y agoThe state of history education is abysmal, at least in the US. I sure as hell was not taught enough (and most of what I was taught, prior to high school history classes, was whitewashed propaganda. Things like "The Russian space program was awful", "The Native Americans and settlers got along swimmingly", or "Columbus thought the Earth was flat". Stuff no adult familiar with the material believes for a moment, but that we teach children anyway.)
- anologwintermut 13y agoFunny, that quote could be said about the "FISA ruled PRISM unconstitutional" mantra that is implied in the title. We have no idea if FISA ruled about PRISM, if they feds changed it to comply with those rulings, or it was something else completely. We ought to know and that in and of it self is enough.
- pattisapu 13y agoCorrect. This is an awfully misleading title. The blogs cite blogs upon blogs, not any actual court filings, which do not reveal any ruling whatsoever about the merits of the constitutional matters. The coverage of this looks like an out of control telephone game.
- lisper 13y agoNo, that's not true. There's an actual source document, which I link to in the post. It's the argument by the Obama administration that the secret ruling should be kept secret. The contents of the secret opinion was revealed by two U.S. senators. See the EFF article for details.
- rollo_tommasi 13y agoThere is a link to the motion to keep the court filing secret. The entire point of the EFF piece is that the constitutional merit of the legal argument underpinning PRISM is being kept under total secrecy, so obviously they don't have access to the actual ruling.
- run4yourlives 13y agoHacker News has officially jumped the shark when not only do we have 300 stories about the same (political) topic on the front page, we have a top rated comment following Godwin's law. Can I get an email or something when this site decides it wants to return to technology and not be r/Politics?
- drhayes9 13y agoI can't think of any single topic more important to the health of the Internet as we know it then this, right now. Sorry to be harsh, but dismissing these discussions as merely "politics" is short-sighted and naive.
- devindotcom 13y agoThe "discussion" this comment is part of is one step away from "wake up sheeple." Comparing PRISM, about which we know very little, with the propagandists of the third reich is disingenuous, unoriginal, and unproductive.
- drhayes9 13y agoSounds fine to me, no Nazi comparisons needed here. But I was speaking to the grandparent comment's world-weariness WRT politics being all mixed up in his/her technology.
- run4yourlives 13y agoIt's not world-weariness as much as it is US politics weariness. If I wanted to know what the major current events were in a foreign country I'd turn on CNN.
- unethical_ban 13y agoTranslated: >If I wanted to know what the major cybersec/surveillence stories were in the country with defacto control of a large portion of the world's internet, a hotbed of technological innovation, and the home country of this website, I'd turn to one of the least reputable news sources in that country.
- lawnchair_larry 13y agoGilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars. Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
- wfunction 13y ago> in the United States only Congress can declare wars Declaring wars is so old school though. Now we just send drones wherever we want.
- BCM43 13y agoAlso, keep in mind, in 1932 Germany was a democracy.
- stox 13y agoAnd when was the last time Congress actually declared war? Not in my lifetime.