Micah (rote) reviewed on 11/21/2008 + 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.

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