Creel’s propaganda success relied on suppressing dissent, not just messaging.

Evidence

Some 700,000 Americans volunteered for the armed forces, even though, unlike the British, the American army, from nearly the beginning, relied on conscription. Not all of Creel’s success, however, is owing to its superb attention capture and effective messaging. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 162

Categorization

• XREF: Pays off the chapter’s argument about manufactured consent — parallels Milgrom’s point that institutions solve information and enforcement problems; here the state silences competitors to its chosen narrative. — connects to: Creel framed propaganda as open propagation of faith, not censorship — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 155; Explicit denunciation of propaganda fails to neutralize its effect; Totalitarian propaganda wins because ideology becomes lived reality, not opinion. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 847

Broader Connections

• Explicit denunciation of propaganda fails to neutralize its effect #expands (0.80)
• Totalitarian propaganda wins because ideology becomes lived reality, not opinion. #complicates (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 847