In a recent article on OpEd News, author Robert Raitz uses the 1936 movie Reefer Madness as an outstanding example of how propaganda was used to manipulate the actions of the American public.
"Tell Your Children, A Paradigm of Dope" gives a pretty good description of the movie that was instrumental in getting marijuana outlawed in The United States. Unfortunately, its outrageous claims of the effects of marijuana left anyone in the know swinging from the chandeliers. The movie has become a cult classic and has recently been turned into a Broadway musical.
The point of the article is to illustrate how the government and special interest groups still use similar types of propaganda to instill fear in the American public which results in knee-jerk reactions based on emotion. These reactions are as unwise now as they were then, and the article leaves me wondering if the masses will ever quit falling for it.
1 comment:
I remember my junior high school showing this film as a deterent to drugs. It scared me then, as did the live birth film we were subjected to.
I watch Reefer Madness every chance I get to remind me of the lengths our government will go to for its own agenda. The manipulative power of this propaganda film that was based on pure fantasy and outright lies was and still is enormous.
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