‘Let them eat birth certificates’

By Diana West
One feature that marks a totalitarian regime is media that serve as the government’s information service. TASS, Radio Berlin, Voice of Hanoi — these were all government entities that conveyed what the dictatorship wanted. The handout comes, the handout is published. The real danger point arrives when propaganda no longer rankles, but flows naturally. That’s when authority carries more weight than evidence, and peer pressure suppresses independent thinking. It’s also when captives become subjects.
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