Encyclopaedia Britannica Films presents

November 25, 2016 10:04 PM

Despotism (1946) A 70 year old educational short, still of interest today. (10 minute slyt, previously)
posted by fings (13 comments total)

Sorry, media is liberally biased, especially YouTube - they told me that during the election - so I can't believe anything in that video is true.
posted by Nanukthedog at 10:20 PM on November 25, 2016

This lesson brought to you by 1939-1945. Let's not learn it the hard way again.
posted by adept256 at 10:23 PM on November 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'd love to have a set of those scales.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:28 AM on November 26, 2016

I'm honestly surprised that they acknowledged racism and corporate influence on the media as problems.....Wait, though, this was 1946. The 1950s suppressed things again.

Dear GOD the 1950s fucked everything up like whoa.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:39 AM on November 26, 2016 [6 favorites]

Wow, this is really tremendous. I'm feeling much more fatalistic about the size of cultural trends, but also vindicated in my beliefs. Small consolation, I suppose. Regardless, thank you so much -- it's great to have historical perspectives from people who witnessed it happening before them.
posted by phenylphenol at 8:07 AM on November 26, 2016

"Easter Bunny Films presents...!"
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:25 AM on November 26, 2016

Well, that's terrifying.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:43 AM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Doesn't matter - people are still the teenagers they once were - incapable of learning from the experience of others.

And you don't have to reach back to the Nazis - look at 2004. They Swift Boated John Kerry to perpetuate nationalistic themes and people just ate it up until Abu Ghraib, when they hid all of their magnetic ribbons and acted like they'd never heard of Dubya.
posted by lon_star at 8:56 AM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is so disgustingly relevant to current events, it almost seems like a prank.
posted by Flexagon at 9:28 AM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

> ...up until Abu Ghraib, when they hid all of their magnetic ribbons...

I can tell you didn't live in the same part of the U.S. I lived in at the time.
posted by at by at 9:29 AM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Clever in a plain way that the brownshirts are wearing armbands with a ≠ sign.
posted by bertran at 2:11 PM on November 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

You know what else is seventy years old and all about despotism?
posted by Sys Rq at 3:23 PM on November 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

Heh, I've had this video saved since the Bush years (the original YouTube upload was around 10 years ago). I meant to trot it out after Trump's victory but life got in the way.
posted by wierdo at 3:37 PM on November 26, 2016 [1 favorite]