For this week’s CT presentation in Genre 203 we have a documentary feature “Manufacturing Consent” (1992)
Preview:
.Feature:
Transcript courtesy of elenacarlena:
“Imagine that... you are repeatedly questioned about your political views, accused of disloyalty.... The phenomenon known as McCarthyism destroyed thousands of lives and careers.... When the Cold War escalated... domestic communism came to be seen as a threat to national security. But the attempt to eliminate that threat soon turned into the longest-lasting and most widespread episode of political repression in American history. Spurred on by a network of bureaucrats, politicians, journalists and businessmen, the campaign wildly exaggerated the danger of communist subversion. The people behind it harassed anyone suspected of holding left-of-center political views or associating with those who did. If you hung modern art on your walls, had a multiracial social circle, or signed petitions against nuclear weapons, you might just have been a communist.... The narrow criteria that Hoover and his allies used to screen federal employees spread to the rest of the country. Soon... thousands of other public and private employers were imposing the same political tests on the men and women who worked for them.... Ambitious politicians... used such hearings as a partisan weapon, accusing Democrats of being soft on communism.... McCarthy's recklessness increased. It was his investigation of the Army that finally turned public opinion against him and diminished his power.... McCarthyism... had ruined hundreds if not thousands of lives and drastically narrowed the American political spectrum.... In all likelihood, there were both Democrats and Republicans who knew that the anti-communist purges were deeply unjust, but feared that directly opposing them would hurt their careers. Even the Supreme Court failed to stop the witch hunt, condoning serious violations of Constitutional rights in the name of national security.... If new demagogues appeared in uncertain times to attack unpopular minorities in the name of patriotism, could it all happen again?”
And feel free to peruse the Friday Feature “Bernie TV”, this week: Bernie TV - Bernie Sanders and Vermont Employers Address CVCC Students/Public Citizen/+Bonus
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H/T blue earth :