/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7327794]

This thread is about the propaganda model described in Noam Chomsky's BOOK (mods), Manufacturing Consent.

Recently I have noticed a trend of more anti-establishment/anti-capitalist messages in the media.

According to Chomsky, all media must pass through several filters, one being government, another being those who own or have shares in the network. We can classify these people as the 1%. They ensure that messages that might conflict with their ideology do not get broadcast.

Now look at this picture. Amazon, a company who are well known for avoiding tax, for building a monopoly through cheap products and hard labour to quash all competition, are advertising the show Mr. Robot, which they have bought the rights to.

For those of you who don't know, Mr. Robot is a show which is highly critical of Capitalism and the necessary conditions in which Capitalism must function.

The irony of this image is obvious. Why, then, would a company like Amazon want to advertise a show critical of its practices if what Noam Chomsky says is true?

[Anonymous No.7327797]

because the left voted themselves into impotence and are happy to get fucked in the arse as long as you whisper "I love you baby, really" in their ear as you do it

[Anonymous No.7327800]

>>7327794
>Why, then, would a company like Amazon want to advertise a show which they have bought the rights to

Why indeed Anonymous?

[Anonymous No.7327804]

>>7327794
"anti-establishment/anti-capitalist messages" serve a function in capitalist culture. While you're smoking pot and watching totally anti-establishment fiction, man, the real world keeps going on as usual.

[Anonymous No.7327818]

>>7327800
This is the obvious answer. I'm suggesting there's a flaw in Chomsky's model, or that it is no longer applicable

[Anonymous No.7327823]

>>7327797
>people still voting on basis of identity kek politics instead of economic freedom.

i hate this world

[Anonymous No.7327825]

Because that book is old.

Where are all your other examples of capitalist critique apart from a show barely anyone will see that preaches to the choir.

[Anonymous No.7327826]

>>7327823
I'm happy about it to be honest

[Anonymous No.7327828]

>>7327794
THIS IS CIA. YOU'RE BIG TROUBLE, ANON..

[Anonymous No.7327838]

>>7327794
>Amazon
>bla bla fuck the 1%
>buy a dvd
wtf

[Anonymous No.7327839]

>>7327828
Haha, jokes on you. I just sent you a MALICIOUS FILE which is going to de-encrypt your ENTIRE NETWORK and make all money WORTHLESS

*taps keyboard very quickly*

I'm in.

[Anonymous No.7327840]

>>7327794
the end of capitalism is now so far from—or rather, so deeply rooted in—the consumer's imagination that its possibility is pure escapism, on the same order of potential actualization as vampire fiction and high fantasy. capitalism's schizo-semioses have pushed the marxist teleology to the limit of fictionality, into the virtual field of impossibility, from which it no longer threatens the ideological architecture, but rather works toward its maintenance.

[Anonymous No.7327844]

>>7327794
That type of anti-establishment media does nothing but make you feel better about being robbed and less likely to revolt. Here you go anon, yes you are right, that guy is indeed evil and a criminal! Yes anon you are so smart and so right to be angry, yes anon take some pot here, you're really smart, see you at work tomorrow.

[Anonymous No.7327846]

>>7327840
spot on

[Anonymous No.7327856]

>>7327794
A good example of this shit is the fate of Larry Lessig's presidential campaign. He was a one issue candidate. He wanted to get money out of American politics and then resign from the presidency. He was running in the democratic primaries.

The DNC were saying that he had to get 1% in three polls to get into the debates. He got 1% in one poll and then he was mystically removed from the polls. Pretty hard to get 1% if you aren't included. SO he didn't get to participate in the first debate.

Then after the first debate, he got 1% in two polls. The DNC then changed their rules so that Larry had to get 1% in three polls, three months before the debate. This made it absolutely impossible for him to qualify.

After this he got so beaten down that he rage quit his presidential campaign.

80% of Americans want money out of politics, yet this guy wasn't even able to get on stage in a debate.

[Anonymous No.7327860]

>>7327840
>>7327840
feels bad

[Anonymous No.7327876]

gotchu famme

after this, move in to the integrated spectacle

[Anonymous No.7327881]

>>7327876
The main idea behind this book makes me think of Infinite Jest

[Anonymous No.7327884]

Anti establishment ideas are co-opted into the spectacle to give us a vicarious outlet for our frustrations so that we don't have to act upon them irl

[Anonymous No.7327896]

>>7327876
this, and anti-oedipus

[Anonymous No.7327903]

>>7327794

Easy answer. This is a classical example of concentrated benefit, and distributed harm. The benefit (profits) from the endeavor go to the parties involved. The detriments are absorbed by the whole. The individual effect on the quantity demanded of Amazon is negligible, compared to profits.

[Anonymous No.7327910]

who are the situationists of the 21st century and where do i sign up?

[Anonymous No.7327924]

>>7327910
It split into a million different small cells, but I suppose their biggest heir would be the autonomists, Agamben, post-left anarchism and people who were at some point part of the SI but are still producing (check Mario Pernioa out, he tries to reapropriate Baudrillard to a more debordian way, something which would've made both men pissed)

[Anonymous No.7327948]

so what the fuck is there for us to do? i'm not satisfied with the status quo, i don't think anyone really is, but if every attempt to oppose it is recuperated and sold right back to us, where does that leave us?

[Anonymous No.7327954]

>>7327948
ethnonationalism

[Anonymous No.7327955]

>>7327948
you ARE satisfied with status quo and most people are

[Anonymous No.7327960]

>>7327954
so that we can have the exact same conditions plaguing us now but instead our neighbors are all white? what would that accomplish?

[Anonymous No.7327964]

>>7327839
NAOOOOO. STOP IT. YOU'RE NOT ALLOW TO DO THINGS I DON'T LIKE.

[Anonymous No.7327993]

>>7327964
nothin personnell, kid

[Anonymous No.7327999]

>>7327948
Vote Bernie?

[Anonymous No.7328026]

>According to Chomsky, all media must pass through several filters, one being government, another being those who own or have shares in the network.

This isn't what he says

[Anonymous No.7328028]

>>7327948
>so what the fuck is there for us to do?

>attend anarchist meetings
>create a community garden
>spearhead electric cars movement
>volunteer at red cross
>start a co-op business
>start a left blog

Or what you'll probably do:
>continue thinking about it occasionally, reading the odd thing, getting fired up but being as inactive and passive as someone who doesn't know what politics is.

[Anonymous No.7328029]

>>7327954
Polish bro here.
Kek, black girl I was with once said I had the skin of a devil.
That really turned me on DESU

[Anonymous No.7328031]

>>7328028
the point is none of that gay shit achieves anything

[Anonymous No.7328032]

>>7328028
all of those are capitalist sponsored

[Anonymous No.7328036]

>>7327818
>>7327794
>hur hur amazon is a news outlet
Retards

[Anonymous No.7328044]

>>7328028
>starting a left blog will end capitalism
It's weird how many leftists think this. At a certain point they will have to admit they simply like hearing themselves speak

[Anonymous No.7328048]

>>7328044
>voting for trump will give you a job

It's weird how many rightists think this will work

[Anonymous No.7328049]

>>7328031
Oh so you're expecting someone here to tell you where there's a button to push that causes a revolution. Classic, you want a change from the status quo but don't want to have to do anything tedious or difficult. Tell us where you see yourself / your lifestyle on the other side of your utopia.

[Anonymous No.7328055]

>>7328026
"The raw material of news must pass through successive filters, leaving only the cleansed residue fit to print"

1.1. Size, OWNERSHIP, and profit orientation of the mass media: the first filter
1.2. The ADVERTISING License to do business: the second filter
1.3. Sourcing mass media news: the third filter
1.4. Flak and the ENFORCERS (government): the fourth filter
1.5. ANTICOMMUNISM as a control mechanism

[Anonymous No.7328059]

>>7328028
>>start a left blog

[Anonymous No.7328060]

>>7328049
no I'm not expecting that at all I'm just saying you're stupid

[Anonymous No.7328067]

>>7328060
Any of those things is better than nothing, that's why you're stupid

[Anonymous No.7328068]

>mfw capitalism is invincible
Go ahead, kids, destroy capitalism with your blog, see how much I care.

[Anonymous No.7328069]

>>7327948
Violent and organized uprising.

[Anonymous No.7328070]

>>7328067
well I'm not a leftist so for me nothing is preferable to any of those

[Anonymous No.7328074]

>>7328070
double downing there, /pol/ is your safe place

[Anonymous No.7328083]

Their reign is not threatened by a 'divergent' show, overexposure to media has made us numb to all ideologies.
And the show sells good, that's what matters.

It may actually cause some harm to consumerist naivete though, I dont know how much itll last though.

[Anonymous No.7328087]

>>7328074
why are you being so shitty honestly

[Anonymous No.7328096]

There's a term for when capitalism takes radical things and commodifies them thus stripping it of its radical content but the terms slipped my mind.

[Anonymous No.7328101]

What does this has to do with books or literature? So a company bought a TV show. And?

[Anonymous No.7328104]

>>7328096
recuperation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuperation_%28politics%29

[Anonymous No.7328115]

>>7327818
Chomsky's theory proposed in manufacturing consent considers news media not pop culture more broadly. So your criticism fails.

[Anonymous No.7328125]

>>7328028
can't tell if serious

[Anonymous No.7328203]

I like how Chomsky didn't see the role the academy plays in "manufacturing consent".

[Anonymous No.7328210]

>>7327840
This desu

A movie saying "capitalism is bad" is impotent. Pretty much everyone can think of a 100 things shit about capitalism and the current economic/political system, that's not a revelation. It's actual, concrete movements and alternatives which dissolve systems, and that is what is lacking and systematically excluded from the public sphere.

[Anonymous No.7328215]

>>7328210
The problem is that a lot of the alternatives are tempted; a return to the old style municipalism based local capitalism, for example, is tainted by association by the left with Imperalism and non-existent discrimination.

[Anonymous No.7328216]

>>7328203
what role do they play?

[Anonymous No.7328226]

>>7328074
Aren't safe spaces for thin-skinned tumblrite SJWs though?

[Anonymous No.7328230]

>>7328215
>municipalism based local capitalism

buzzwords

capitalism has globalised and totalised the economy, such a project is impossible even if it were desirable

[Anonymous No.7328270]

>>7328215
there can be no alternative within the architecture of the system. these are all differently decorated rooms within the same shit motel. the only solution is violent radicalism, mass rioting, car bombs, etc, in every major city at the same time. but that won't happen—people are lethargic both politico-ideologically from the diet of media like that in the op, and the diet of testosterone-diminishing dairies and corn syrups they consume daily.

[Anonymous No.7328274]

>>7328115
Semantics. They all go through the same channels. Don't be so childish.

[Anonymous No.7328344]

>>7327884
Exactly. And, as already displayed in this thread, the contradiction of anti-capitalist discourse utilized by capitalist business, who draws a profit from this anti-capitalist discourse, causes many that are conscious of the contradiction to descend into nihilism ("they control everything, they've already won, resistance really is futile"). Capitalists like Amazon's owners are aware of this effect. There is another option, of course: people learn from the message and the contradiction and ascend towards class consciousness and resistance. This is apparent in Europe and the U.S.: Leftward tendency, from rightist Reformist Liberalism to centrist Democratic Socialism to leftist Revolutionary Communism, is on the rise, despite capitalist new media's ignorance and propagandist approach to the fact.

The question is potential. The capitalist class is comfortable that they maintain enough information and class control that they can entertain the masses with the truth and redirect them towards the promise of "change" and future mobility. But the fissure is here, and it can't go away. The capitalists will then seek to consume the portions of the fissure that they are able to mold to their own ends and then turn this portion against the radical portion. They did with the Civil Rights Movements and they're doing it now: Obama and Carson (especially Carson) aren't accidents.

[Anonymous No.7328356]

>>7328344
>leftism on the rise in Europe
omg

[Anonymous No.7328384]

>>7328356
Strong rebuttal

[Anonymous No.7328386]

>>7328384
how about you look at every single election result this year

[Anonymous No.7328388]

>>7328386
oops forgot about Greece
but yeah alright dude we're just moments away from a communist revolution (just like the last 150 years right?)

[Anonymous No.7328398]

>>7328203
Except he does, he talks about it all the fucking time

Do people actually read Chomsky? I swear on me mum, it seems like he's always criticized out of ignorance