Dangerous Willi.

Have you heard of Willi Muenzenberg? He was one of the most influential men of the 20th Century. - "But how could he be - it is a name I have never encountered," do I hear you say?
Well, Willi would have liked that. He was Stalin's chief propagandist and the 'father of all spin doctors' - he really was 'the daddy of them all'!
As Stephen Koch, author of Double Lives wrote in the New Criterion:"He wanted to instil the feeling, like a truth of nature, that seriously to criticize or challenge Soviet policy was the unfailing mark of a bad, bigoted, and probably stupid person, while support was equally infallible proof of a forward-looking mind committed to all that was best for humanity and marked by an uplifting refinement of sensibility." [Overtones of Leonard Schapiro as oft quoted on this Blog]He wrote the 'Brown Books' which contained pure lies which are quoted as if they are history to this very day. It was Willi who first began the demonisation of the USA. It was indeed his work and ultimately that of his acolytes which was to lead to the vicious Hollywood campaign against the so-called McCarthy witch-hunts.
We all know 'as indisputable fact' that the anti-communist McCarthy was 'a vicious rightwinger who wanted to take away the democratic rights of actors and similar to be left of centre'.
The trouble is that McCarthy was seldom far from the mark with his accusations of 'planted communists in positions of influence'. (How many 'victims' successfully sued him for defamation you may well ask? - It was rather, the other way round!) This is the bit which always gets left out - [the real propaganda success] when in fact the senator was more anti-extremist than extremist himself. [Always portray reason as being unreasonable!]

TBH though - he was NOT a nice man and certainly not what 'hero material' is made from. He was capable of 'playing dirty' but although some attacks were knee jerk reactions from him - the majority were not. It is because he was not lily-white himself that he became so vulnerable to the left - whose natural integrity of course, would never countenance 'dark methods against someone to the right of themselves.
Of course, nowadays we are largely impervious to such matters. In this country it is expected that a large number of politicians, media beavers and members of the 'liberal elite' will be working constantly to undermine our rights to democracy, freedom and self-determination. (Abridged from 2007.)