An American security contractor and a Chinese embassy employee are at a bar. The American says, “I gotta say, your propaganda is impressive. You sure know how to keep your people in line.”

“Oh, you’re too gracious,” the embassy worker says. “And besides, it’s nothing compared to American propaganda.”

The contractor chokes on his drink and gives his friend a bewildered look.

“What are you talking about? There’s no propaganda in America.”

“Imposing any kind of environmental regulations in businesses would destroy the entire economy, concludes team of economists paid by those businesses. Coming up next - are you doing enough to protect your family from dangerous toxins in our environment? We’ll tell you what a dumb and lazy piece of shit you are, after these ads!”

“They asked me how well I understood class consciousness. I said I was a member of the conscious class. They said welcome aboard.”

Ah, you’re totally right,thank you, I’d been using those interchangeably without thinking about it much

Synthesis: everyone should have a well constructed residence with ample sound dampening where late night fireworks and early morning traffic noise wouldn’t be a problem. Capitalist real estate developers minimizing their costs and maximizing their profits have us fighting each other when they’re the real problem.

e; I was actually thinking microphones would pick up and retransmit sounds after running it through some reverb and flanging to get a cozy underwater effect, but damping external sounds makes a lot more sense

FWIW, the article author also wrote a book called “Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food”