Micah (rote) reviewed Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry on + 46 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Capital has the wherewithal to systematically shape the opinions of the public. Toxic Slude... does a good job of demonstrating the means by which they do this. Sometimes the examples -- case studies, if you will -- drag on, but generally they teach you about some of the issues that the capitalists like to lie about and just how they do lie.
Yet all this is persuasion, while probably morally underhanded, is 'above-board' in the sense that 'free speech' and the rule of money offer this ability to anyone (who has the means). Instead of therefore offering a critique of the capitalist domination of society, Rampton and Stauber instead limit their demands to a kind of pallid, reformist activism in which consumers "get educated" and "organize." Good, I guess, but they'll never win. The complicity of the capitalist media in whipping up war fever in 2001/2003, the way the environmental crisis has been channeled into a bunch of ads about green potato chips, etc., demonstrates this.
3 stars.
Yet all this is persuasion, while probably morally underhanded, is 'above-board' in the sense that 'free speech' and the rule of money offer this ability to anyone (who has the means). Instead of therefore offering a critique of the capitalist domination of society, Rampton and Stauber instead limit their demands to a kind of pallid, reformist activism in which consumers "get educated" and "organize." Good, I guess, but they'll never win. The complicity of the capitalist media in whipping up war fever in 2001/2003, the way the environmental crisis has been channeled into a bunch of ads about green potato chips, etc., demonstrates this.
3 stars.
H M. (anchovy) reviewed Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry on + 296 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book was a hoot! As the cover says, "Your worst cynicism pales before reality in this blistering and often hilarious expose of secretive, little-known mega-firms who control our political debates and public opinion, twisting reality and protecting the powerful from scrutiny." I laughed so hard I nearly cried when a toxic sludge PR firm called the author with concerns about the book's title and tried to advocate for "biosolids"...
