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Interesting to See What Gets Labeled as Propaganda and What Does Not


As I've gone through these boards over the years I see movie after movie, most of them war movies that show Americans winning and succeeding against great odds, labeled as propaganda. These are dramatic productions, mind you, sometimes dramatizing actual events and sometimes entirely fictional. But they are labeled propaganda.

Here we have what purports to be a documentary. Only one event is portrayed in which the date, place, and names of the victims are actually given. The names of the perpetrators are not, beyond showing that they were members of the Ku Klux Klan. All of the other events depict victims and antagonists who are never identified. The dates and locations are sketchily identified. No specific information is provided and there is no opportunity for the viewer to get any facts that can be checked.

What were unions best known for in 1942 when this was released? I will remind you if you don't know your history. The IWW and other labor organizations had conducted several wildcat strikes at various defense plants across the country in 1940 and 1941. While we had not yet gone to war, President Roosevelt had initiated construction for a war that he believed was coming. In addition, many companies were building vehicles, aircraft, and ships for the United Kingdom who was at war with Germany. From June of 1940 to June of 1941 they were fighting alone. The Soviet Union was not yet at war with Germany. They had signed a non-aggression pact with them. So, they were using their influence to interfere with war production in the United States because wanted the "capitalist war" to be fought without aid from us. Of course, that changed quickly in June of 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

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I'm watching it now and agree with everything you've said.

"All necessary truth is its own evidence." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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