quote · Legacy record
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.
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.
Approximate author period: c. 1928 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Noam Chomsky
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
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- Approximate author period: c. 1928 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 1928; activity date not established; Wikidata Q9049, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9049 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 152706; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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