Fascist propaganda succeeds by reproducing rather than challenging the existing mentality.
Evidence
Since it would be impossible for fascism to win the masses through rational arguments, its propaganda must necessarily be deflected from discursive thinking; it must be oriented psychologically, and has to mobilize irrational, unconscious, regressive processes. This task is facilitated by the frame of mind of all those strata of the population who suffer from senseless frustrations and therefore develop a stunted, irrational mentality. It may well be the secret of fascist propaganda that it simply takes men for what they are: the true children of today’s standardized mass culture, largely robbed of autonomy and spontaneity, instead of setting goals the realization of which would transcend the psychological status quo no less than the social one. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 218
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Fascist mass mobilization is repressive equality, not a reversion to barbarism.
Related
- Fascist mass mobilization is repressive equality, not a reversion to barbarism. (similarity 0.87)
- Fascism exploits psychological tendencies rather than being caused by them. (similarity 0.85)
- Indifference to victimization, not overt bigotry, enables fascism. (similarity 0.82)
- Personalized leader propaganda substitutes psychological imagery for objective discussion (similarity 0.80)
- Adjustment to the status quo is easier than seeing through it (similarity 0.79)
- Fascism rests on a long-term anthropological reshaping of social character. (similarity 0.78)
- Fascist egalitarianism is repressive, not liberating (similarity 0.78)
- Fascist agitators overemphasize organization to compensate for the crowd’s loose structure (similarity 0.78)