In 'Necessary #illusions: thought control in democratic societies' !Chomsky talks about 'political power using #propaganda to distort and #distract from major issues to maintain confusion and #complicity, preventing real democracy from becoming effective', "As a genre of political thought, parallels exist between #Niebuhr's "necessary illusions" and the "noble lies" of Leo #Strauss, "public relations" of Edward #Bernays and "myth making" of Niccolò #Machiavelli." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessary_Illusions cc @question