Agree strongly with this. It's a long-standing anti-socialist tactic to underfund and undermine solid, working government programs, and then denigrate those sa

Agree strongly with this. It's a long-standing anti-socialist tactic to underfund and undermine solid, working government programs, and then denigrate those same programs as more proof that "big government doesn't work". US Postal system is a great example, everyone finds plenty to criticize, and yet standard mail delivery is more reliable than email (and getting more expensive by the second as neo-liberal ideology dictates USPS should be "profitable". I've heard the same nonsense is at play with Deutsches Bahn, leading to the demise of the S-Bahn in Berlin). But also there's the cultural side, which is the emphasis in advertising from the 1950s onward to portray an individual self-disambiguating from monolithic society tastes and norms, by buying a Beetle, or smoking a Marlboro, or chewing a different gum. This plus tie-ins to James Dean-style Hollywood efforts, and it's a very unified message that is nonetheless somewhat invisible. The article is correct to note the attitude that "it's not propaganda if you agree with it", it's been a huge win for advertising to promote and co-opt this attitude with subtle directions toward consumerism, and its close affinity with deeply conservative anti-socialist tactics is worth further investigation.