The Occupy Wall street Movement

Thousands of people have banded together to protest the fucked up governmental policy that we are forced to endure. Be it bailing out rich scum, and throwing our economy into a downward spiral, or refusing to tax said rich scum. The 99% as these protesters are calling themselves are sick of the injustice that the American public face on a daily bases. While those fat cats that make up the 1% of our country are, eating caviar and chartering trips to the Bahamas the rest of us 99% are fighting a losing battle to feed our children, and ourselves, losing our jobs, and trying to make sense of the mess our country is in. Here is the mission statement taken form Occupywallstreet.org

"Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #OWS is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future.”

We are paying for the mistakes of a group of qualified people that run the show. But the question on my mind, that should be on every other American’s mind is this; What makes you people any more qualified to run a country than the rest of its population?  Tearing America down is the solution, for too long have the American people sat back and idly let the government fuck them. When we are the very lubricate that makes it possible for America to ram its big dick into the asses of other lesser countries. That right there has also been an issue, because unless I have lived in an asshole for the last three years, which I have, NOT mind you! The debt we are now faced with was exacerbated by the “War”.  Based on a photo slide interview of different protesters on MSNBC.com everyone is there for their own reasons. Whether they want to end corporate greed” or “see what comes of the protest, these people are out protesting for their own agendas.  I am shocked that the meager Americans have finally taken an interest in the way that this country has been run for over a hundred years. Corporations are the backbone of this country because they provide funding to officials running for election, they provide “valuable” services to the public such as loans and shit like that…They provide beautiful little gadgets, search engines, and all sorts of nifty things. However, they apparently have a dark nasty side that has always been there, but we are just now seeing it because of a “recession”.  As touching, as it is too see Americans rally together in hopes of changing an age-old way of doing things in our country, I do not think this movement will amount to much. I think that the people have waited too long, and have allowed the officials’ excessive freedom in deciding what happens to us “99%”. We should have protested when the economic crisis happened and the bailouts began. “With the $700 billion authorized by Congress in October 2008 via the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, the Treasury Department has been doling out the money via an alphabet soup of different programs”—ProPublica.  I guess better late than never, after all this is America, and apparently we just don’t have enough interest in our lives to take action until we are pushed so far down that the bottom looks like the top.  Corporate greed is always going to exist, I may sound like a shmuck for saying so, but it is the truth. Protest all you want, you are still going to end up with the same set of bullshit regulations to live by…and in the great words of Hunter S. Thompson “There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It’s a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.”
 

          Works Cited

Leitsinger, Miranda. "Who Is Occupying Wall Street? Not Just Your Average Joe." MSNBC.COM, 6 Oct. 2011. Web.

"History of U.S. Gov’t Bailouts."  ProPublica, 15 Apr. 2009. Web. http://www.propublica.org/special/government-bailouts

Wall St, Occupy. "Occupy Wall Street Marks One Month." Occupy Wall Street.org, 17 Oct. 2011. Web.

Thompson, Hunter S. “Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80s”, 1988. Print.

Black Metal Proposal

              The topic that I chose to inform people on is Norwegian Black Metal culture. Many people are very unaware of anything to do with Norway, let alone a musical subculture.  And those that are aware of what people who belong to this subgroup are bothered by the ideals and the violence that Black Metal is associated with.  That is not the case; I am hoping to show that those involved are not all the same, I hope to enlighten a conservative audience of the meaning of expression through music. A bit of back-story is perhaps in need for my proposal to even be considered.  Black Metal first arose with Venom, a British band. Venom took on a mystical stage presence and thus influenced many artists around the 1980’s.         

Black Metal music is an insane assault of both aggressive and beautiful tones. Artists use very technical skills on guitars, and the vocals are very deep and demonic in sound. Most of the material used in Black Metal song writing is Satanic in nature. This is the main reason that fans of this subgenre of metal are looked down upon. Not only the sadist satanic lyrics that cause many people to consider fans degenerates, events that are violent also have a lot to do with the condescending attitude Black Metal fans are faced with. In the early 1990’s a wave of violence rocked Norway at the hands of the “Black Circle”.  A group of friends whom decided that they were not going to take the injustice they faced from all forms of authority. 

Varg Vikernes, a prominent figure in the scene, lead youths to burn churches, and even went as far as murdering a fellow Black Metal fan/musician himself. This was the dawn of a new era if you will, because what was once frowned upon was now considered dangerous and morally wrong.  Vikernes claimed in later interviews that he was ashamed of the way that Christianity and American culture had invaded Norway. He bragged about several of the things that he had done with his friends to newspapers, which ultimately lead to his arrest. In my actual paper, I will expand with detail the extremes of this “culture” and contrast with the normal individuals that listen to, and live by this genre of metal. I hope to show that while Vikernes and others take these strong courses, that not all fans are alike, and therefore should not be pigeonholed by their actions.  I will explore the complex natures of the scene, and dissect the extremes from the norms.

Another reason that Black Metal fans are looked down upon is the manner in which they dress. You will typically see them in T-shirts with sometimes “vile” imagery, or you will see the artists, in their nailed arm guards, and spikes galore. As sad as it is, people are still judged by appearance alone. So of course, Black Metal fans are going to get the shitty end of the stick as far as appearance is concerned. However, what conservatives need to know is that many of the people, who listen to Black Metal, are actually quite smart, and gentle in nature. Most of the fans do not want the negative attention that Vikernes generated associated with them. I know that I do not want to have anyone considering me as heathen because of the music I listen too or the views I have. Yet that is what the individuals in Norway face, along with people in other parts of the world. Once the shit storm that was the 1990’s erupted, we have had to justify ourselves as well as explain actions of those involved in those events.

                                                              Works Cited

Ames, Mark. "Black Metal Nation: How Norway Spawned the World’s Most Violent Rightwing Metalheads." Exiled Online. Exiled Online, 23 July 2011. Web. 13 Aug. 2011.

Christe, Ian. Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. It, 2004. Print.

Moynihan, Michael, and Didrik Soderlind. Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. Feral House, 1998, 2003. Print.

Until The Light Takes Us. Dir. Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell. Perf. Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell, Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes, Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg, Kjetil "Frost" Haraldstad, Olve "Abbath" Eikemo. Variance Films, 2010. DVD.

·          I will probably use another print source; I have ordered two from Amazon. 

Response # 5

                               Education: Let's Allow Them to Take That From Us as Well

Because I had already read the article assigned, I found another one that echoes the concern about education in America. “Testing, Privatization, and the Future of Public Schooling” by “An Assessor” focuses on the issues that are currently plaguing the educational system, the article enlightens readers on the social segregation that is being placed upon economically unsound youths across the United States.

An Assessor writes about the damage standardized testing is causing in public school systems nationwide, “Standardized testing occupies a central place in the ongoing reorganization—or demolition—of public education in the United States.” The writer gives more details as to what affect this “testing” is having on the general population. “Tests were a useful mechanism for pressuring students—via grade promotion, graduation, and scholarships.” With pressures on the students that are already suffering through boring lectures from teachers to excel in order to find some sort of end reward, those who fall short are left wondering why they aren’t up to par with others in their class. This could go back to the theory by Ken Robinson, “people who are smart, just not academic feel inferior because of their difference in abilities.” This would add a huge amount of pressure to test taking, which ultimately could lead to failure.

The author also feels that test can be used as a means of control over the population, thus with the reward system in place those who are challenged or slow learners, would feel as if they have no option but to accept the end result. This would provide a control if you will over those that actually need help, yet are not getting it because they fall short of the “standards”. The author shows a better comparison than any I could think of to show the amount of control that is established by testing, “In the United States, tests have come to serve a function similar to money: they are both a measuring tool and a means of control.” I think we agree that money is certainly used to control people. Money plays a big role in why standardized test even exist. See, schools get money based on results from tests that are mandated by the government, if they fall short on the range of acceptable scores; they face serious “punishments”.

Those “punishments” include privatization, charters, and layoffs of staff. That certainly seems like standardized testing is in place to help right? If the government is going to remove staff from schools, and then privatize the entire institution, they are going to make serious changes to the curriculum. Those changes may or may not actually benefit students. Since schools are mostly in place to produce new workforces, then the curriculum may be sub-par in certain areas to provide said fodder for the work-machine. One way that they are doing this, is the use of funds available to public school districts. The author asserts that funding for public schools are very disproportionate, “Funding, however, remains unequally distributed, with three-to-one funding ratios between wealthy and poor districts common both within and across states.” When you think of public schools, you think of taxpayer’s money being distributed among all schools, not just those with more wealth associated to those that already attend or the general area in which the school is located. How does this help anyone? This question will continue to resurface until a viable answer is found.

The author believes that a racial issue is at play in the educational system, “so that lack of funds intertwines with racial isolation.” This could certainly be plausible because areas with high concentrations of different races are generally portrayed to have bad school systems, in the media and other mediums. One cannot certainly say that because an area has a different population than Middle America, that the school system suffers for any reason other than funds distribution.  I think that in order to combat the issue that funds should be evenly spread among all areas, just as most other people would think. Yet why isn’t this taking place?  For as long as there have been humans, social classes have been in play. One class rules another, which is just how it goes. American leaders would rather see rich people succeed than poor, (case in point distribution of funds in education). It is a sad thing that our leaders would rather watch us wallow in uneducated squalor than allocate funds to support the very essence required for rising from poverty.

The author feels that Neoliberalism is to blame. Neoliberalism is a label for the market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that stresses the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the political and economic priorities of the state.  Certainly, the punishment in place for schools that fall below standards echoes neoliberalism, in the sense that private owned companies support privatized schools. Since schools are part of the economy in the sense that they provide future workers, why should corporations have a hand in the “teaching” of those future workers? The author gives a statement as to how we are supposed to combat this “change” in educational standards concerning neoliberalism, “Neoliberalism can only be stopped by a major effort by educators, parents, and communities—that is, by different sectors of the broad working class (including the so-called middle class, which is fundamentally the strata of middle-to-better-paid workers) coming together. Without such a movement, there is no hope for the fundamental changes needed in U.S. education.”

I agree that there are issues that are sorely misjudged in America, and I agree that it is a travesty that education is facing such onslaught from the government. Yet little can we do about it without serious actions, we should be more proactive in our everyday lives. These “issues” may feel like they do not affect us because we are in college, and almost at the “reward point”, but think of your children. Think of the education they will receive in America if this continues. Will you all be rich? Will you all accept that your children be taught curriculum that is sub-par based on your geographic location? Say you live in East LA... Would you accept an education that your kids receive because of lack of funding? I hope not. Back to the authors statement “Americans need to come together”; we would have to have a terrorist attack to do so. It seems that for people to bond together something drastic and public has to happen. The war on terror brought millions of people together as the entity that is America, yet the war on education seems to separate the rich from the poor. Our lack of concern for each other, and our lack of concern for what policy makers are doing are astounding. These sad situations have driven us to this point.  We are at a point in history, when the very essence of creativity and knowledge can be swept away, all because big money corporations want a piece of the educational pie.

                                                                Works Cited

   Assessor, An. “Testing, Privatization, and the Future of Public Schooling” Monthly Review. Web. Published, 23 August 2011. Accessed, 5 September 2011.

Robinson, Ken. “Changing Education Paradigms,” lecture. rsAnimate.org Web. Accessed 5 September 2011.

Response # 4: What's Wrong with Education Anyway?

In the growing struggle of educational reform in the United States and other parts of the world, children are the ones that are damaged. While we sit in our classrooms, and listen to our lectures, public schools are struggling everywhere. Educator Ken Robinson point out the reason education has failed us, in his lecture Changing Education Paradigms. Robinson has many good points, and delivers them in an interesting way. However, another viewpoint on the educational crisis comes from John Bellamy Foster, the editor of the Monthly Review and Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon, his article Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital: the US case, presents information about how the schools are in a crisis as far as government funding is concerned. Each of the professionals takes a different approach to presenting the truth about American education, and the growing strain that is felt by everyone that is involved.

Let us begin with Ken Robinson’s view on why the schools are currently failing to meet the educational expectations of many of their students. Robinson talks about the struggle to find places for our children in an economy that cannot be predicted. How can someone place children in the economy if we are unsure as to what our economy will look like when they reach adulthood? We cannot, because for all we know, the economy as we know it could bottom out by the time our children reach adulthood thus driving the ever-growing poverty level to astronomical proportions. Foster, agrees, and goes one-step further with his assertion that schools are being used as means to generate revenue for big corporations that have their hands in the proverbial “pockets” of education. Foster focuses on the capitalism of education.

Another viewpoint Robinson has is the “production line models of schools” meaning schools have a factory like quality about them, essentially producing students as the man product with teachers as the workers who shape said product. Foster agrees in this assertion, “Schooling, therefore, is meant to service production, and replicates the hierarchical division of labor of the productive system. 7 Hence, both the dominant purpose of elementary and secondary schooling in capitalist society—the formation of workers or labor power for production—and the labor process internal to schooling itself, as carried out by education workers, are fundamentally conditioned by the relations of production in the larger economy.” So if schools are “factory like” and educators are “factory workers”, then is there any wonder that public education is suffering?

Both men agree that the current educational system fosters inequality among pupils. Robinson talks about the difference between the two norms of people, “academic” and “not academic”, he explores the fact that while non-academic people are just as smart as others, they are made to feel inferior because they are forced to take menial jobs.  Foster approaches this as follows, “Working-class students and those destined for working-class occupations are taught rule-following behavior, while those arising from the upper middle class and/or destined for the professional-managerial stratum are taught to internalize the values of the society.” With that taken into account, why are millions of children being forced into subservience by school systems because of their backgrounds, and or income? That is at best wrong, and unjust, why should anyone be denied a proficient education based on trivial status issues?  Foster goes onto explain that elite private schools provide higher education to those that can afford it, while public education is subpar at best. That has to enlighten us to the differences of class in the American society.

Furthermore, both agree that standardized testing is wrong. Robinson feels that standardized testing is a blame for the failing of education, and the increase of medications prescribed for ADHD among adolescents today. Foster, on the other hand, asserts that standardized testing is a means for the government to gain more control over public schools. He uses George W. Bush’s NCLB (No Child Left Behind) as a means to explain his point. While NCLB was designed to help under educated children meet goals, the real truth is that school are penalized by low scores, which could support the fact that standardized testing is at fault as Robinson said.  Here is look at what schools face if they fall below the “educational standard” set forth by NCLB.

 (1) All states were to develop their own tests and three performance levels (basic, proficient, and advanced), with proficiency determined separately by each state. (2) In order to receive federal education funds, states were required to test students in grades three to eight annually for proficiency in reading and math, and to disaggregate the scores in terms of low-income status, race, ethnicity, disability status, and limited English proficiency. (3) Each state was to provide a timeline showing how 100 percent of their students would reach proficiency by 2014. (4) All schools and school districts were ordered to demonstrate adequate yearly progress (AYP) for every disaggregated subgroup toward the goal of 100 percent proficiency in 2014. (5) A school that did not achieve AYP for all subgroups would be subject to onerous penalties increasing in each successive year. In the fourth year, the school would be subject to “corrective action,” requiring curriculum changes, staff changes, or a longer school year. In the fifth year, a school still not making AYP would be ordered to “restructure.” (6) A school that was ordered to restructure was allowed five “options,” all amounting to essentially the same thing: (a) change to a charter school; (b) lay off the principal and staff and replace them with others; (c) hand over control of the school to private management; (d) relinquish control of the school to the state; or (e) “any other major restructuring of the school’s governance.”

Those are some extreme consequences, if schools are punished by the government for the disinterest of students, then what hope do those of us that are interested in education have. Robinson explains that the disinterest is because “we live in the most stimulating era of all time”. We are distracted because of the vast world of media that we have at a mere touch of a button. If we have some much going on in our outside world, then why would we want to pay attention to an old fart bag telling us about 1776 England? Robinson also attributes this to the “fictitious epidemic” that ADHD is. 

Finally, the question is this: What does the future of American education look like? Will we continue to foster class differences among our students, or will we finally cut the divide.  Will schools continue to be modeled after factories, or will we finally shatter that age-old comparison and reform the way education is approached? Will millions of college students ever get out of the hole that is debt? Why can’t the American government follow the European countries that have provided free education to everyone? I think that the answer to all these questions is not NCLB, but NCIWE (No Corporate Interference with Education). If a true reform is to take place, then we have to shatter the entire foundation of learning in the United States. There is an old saying: You cannot polish a turd. America’s turd is the current Educational system, which to be reformed needs to be brought to its knees, and rethought from the ground up.   

                                                                Works Cited

Foster, John Bellamy. “Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital: The U.S. Case” Monthly Review 2011, Volume 63, Issue 03 (July-August) Web. Accessed 30 August 2011

Robinson, Ken. “Changing Education Paradigms,” lecture. RsAnimate.org Web. Accessed 30 August 2011.

Response # 3: Oh What A Mess We're In; a response to Someplace Like America

Someplace Like America by Dale Maharidge, takes a look at the troubles working class Americans are facing. I was shocked to read that people are driven into homelessness, and our government is doing nothing to aid them. I find that it is amazing that Middle America can bail out banks and Wall Street with their tax dollars, and yet we are forced into homelessness because of layoffs and businesses closing up shop. We as a nation should do more for each other instead of allowing thousands of people to be homeless or on the brink of homelessness.


 This makes me think of the situation in New Orleans with hurricane Katrina. FEMA and other government assistance branches did little to help the people of New Orleans. What was once a beautiful, thriving, historical city is now reduced to condemned buildings in parts, with thousands of people still not in their own homes.  When the author talks about the government failing the American citizens, I agree. We have always been an economic powerhouse, because of the working class of people that built this country, yet the very country can cast them aside and favor bankers? How does that make sense? This “Great Recession” has reduced us to nothing, and is continuing to destroy the working class.


 Bailing out banks is not the answer, moving corporations overseas is not the answer; the answer is providing a sound way of life for all of the people of this country. We focus on our humanitarian efforts in other countries, yet ignore our own struggling public. With the unemployment rate rising, and the use of public assistance rising wouldn’t you think the government would try to put some form of safeguards in place to protect us? I don’t understand why the working class has been ignore in favor of the rich, but I believe that change is in order.


We should focus on trying to rebuild our economy instead of simply bailing out Wall Street. We should focus on providing more jobs for those in need, and focus on education. Education in America is lacking, colleges are somewhat jokes these days, with people attending only to get money in order to have some relief from the economic burden placed on them. The amount of children that graduate from high school without basic reading and math skills is astounding, and the government does nothing to provide an answer.  


As the author portrays this has been happening in America for thirty years, thirty years of debt building, and the working class living in squalor because of lay-offs and out searching.  Where I am respectful of the author of Someplace Like America, I would like to say that writing a novel does little more than open the eyes of the people who aren’t affect…yet. This novel can be seen as a warning to those of us that aren’t affected, take heed, just because it’s not you doesn’t mean it won’t be in a year.  We as a nation, should demand more of our government, and demand that they assist the homeless in OUR country first.


We should demand that the government and Wall Street watch their spending. We should demand that the American culture not be destroyed over the actions of a few bankers, and real estate companies. WE are all we have, and the lack of companionship amongst the American people is partially to blame for the homelessness and welfare increase.  Would it hurt for companies to extend a hand to those in need? Perhaps offer jobs, offer something to combat what has been ignored? Our government is clearly not going to help, so what is stopping the public?  I think that the author hits the nail on the head when describing some of the issues that we are faced with, and I hope that with his work, we can see that our future is bleak if changes are not made.

Response # 2: Why Men Are Fooled By Corporations

          Reading the articles compiled on Dialogic, I decided that the simplest way to show a good example of framing/propaganda would be the article “Wealthy, Handsome, Strong, Packing Endless Hard-Ons: The Impossible Ideals Men Are Expected to Meet” by Greta Christina, because of the extremes that the male is faced with as far as expectations from the media are concerned. They are essentially taking the good idea of fitness, and making it something vastly unattainable and wrong. Corporations sell this image of a well-sculpted body, with a huge pecker in little white briefs and tell the common person, “You can have this! You can be a beautiful man, with insane muscle definition and a huge package if you EXERCISE!

However, as the article really shows the world of fitness modeling has a dark underbelly. According to the article fitness models undergo crazy rituals to make muscle definition more prominent than it actually is, through dehydration and alcohol binges the model attains the unattainable results that the common man will never see. Because the “common man” does not know that fitness models essentially try to kill themselves for the sake of a fucking picture. Men are also subjected to various other unrealistic expectations such as the need to be wealthy, and handsome. For as long as men have been alive, they have tried to attain this goal of “perfection” they want to be something that other men are jealous of and that women readily want to go to bed with. However, the sad fact is that you cannot be prefect. You must accept what you are, and who you are for that matter.

Big corporations are going to try to force these ideals down your throat, and you are going to be miserable if you are naïve enough to buy into them. That is why framing is essentially so important in the media world, they can wrap a turd of shit in a pretty package and some fool will buy it. All you have to do to sell anything controversial would be package it friendly, meaning you shouldn’t except something with a negative correlation to do well. For example stem cell research, has been a huge controversy because of the implications of “playing god”. People are against harvesting embryos to supply the cells needed for this type of research, so the companies involved now harvest from adults, and umbilical cords. They are still doing the same thing, but the package has changed, thus eliminating the entire argument of “playing god” as far as those are concerned that are opposed to killing fetuses, or what have you.

To sell the turd you would have to rename it, make the box pretty, and flavor it up a bit, essentially removing the aspects that are commonly associated with shit. Much like the use of dehydration, alcohol binges, and Photoshop do for the fitness magazines, diet companies, and not to mention Gatorade. They produce the ideal that you have to be healthy, to be successful. They clearly do not expose the truth behind the “health” removing all negative associations mentioned above. The typical human is geared to buy into anything that is pleasing, be it that sports car, dream home, or diet product that promises insane results. As long as others are seen endorsing or benefitting from a product, fad, or otherwise, middle America will be draw to it like flies to offal. 

However, that entire concept can be at fault for the downfall of American health, you take a McDonalds commercial, you will see an actor having the best time ever with a McChicken and maybe an apple and assume that McDonalds isn’t that unhealthy, I mean look at that actor! They are having a great time; they are so vibrant and pretty… I need to run out and buy some. Then after about a year of those catchy commercials, you are ready to jump into a diet that promises you will look like Brad Pitt naked in Legends of the Fall.  Thus returning to the entire argument that men should be something they are not.  

An example of propaganda associated with “fitness models” would be the misleading nature that companies present the models. They never disclose the true nature of the actual career as a fitness model. They just use the models as the prototype male figure; making thousands upon thousands of men generate more revenue for their companies. If they present something that builds off the already bruised male ego then they are going to see many males striving to fulfill the requirements that are placed upon them.

Women are just as much victims as males, only to a lesser extent, magazines that show us beautiful men force us to think of males in certain ways, and we strive to obtain those men because they are what is “desirable”. We allow the media to oppress our general ways of thinking by invading us with images so far from reality that we will do anything to fit into a role they describe.

Another form of propaganda would be those companies that provide “enhancement” to men. They lie through their teeth and make bald promises that if you take a pill your penis will just become so enlarged that you will have all the women in the world knocking down your door. Those pills work no better than anything else that is supposed to “enhance” your member. Yet they show you these images of men sitting around with beautiful women, talking about how some pill changed their entire lives. Companies are aware of the insecurities that humans have, and they will exploit them at any cost. Even to go as far as making claims that a rational person should know to be false. 

Propaganda and framing are valuable to the media, not just to sell products but to sell general ways of thinking as well. Politicians use propaganda to smear the opposition, big companies will use propaganda and framing to destroy the “mom and pop” competition.  Hitler used propaganda to try to justify the killing of the Jewish people. Propaganda is always going to be prevalent in our culture; we just need to be more careful with what we will buy into. People on a whole are naïve, but when some trusted brand tells you what the “right” way to live/be is you need to think very seriously to see if they are forcing some rhetoric down your throat to generate revenue or gain something for them.

                                           Work Cited

Christina, Greta “Wealthy, Handsome, Strong, Packing Endless Hard-Ons: The Impossible Ideals Men Are Expected to Meet” http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/ Web. Accessed 23 August 2011.