The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
When I visited this country for the second time, in 2003, I clearly remember a debate on one of the main networks (I...
talking but not walking 101
—- I think we’re doing a fine job of limiting our spectrum ourselves.