- Aug 2023
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quoteinvestigator.com quoteinvestigator.com
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Was Ronald Reagan's shift in politics an example of “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” (Upton Sinclair)? (see also: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/)
Link to https://hypothes.is/a/Kft7kDOrEe6TQKcW-dREwQ in The Big Myth on Regan's shift in political views while working for General Electric.
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Local file Local file
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Most Americans know that before becoming a politician Reaganwas an actor, but fewer are aware that Reagan’s flagging screencareer was revived by a job with the General Electric Corporation(GE). Reagan hosted the popular television show General ElectricTheater, where each week his voice and face reached into tens ofmillions of homes, promoting didactic stories of individualism andfree enterprise. At the same time, he traveled across the country onbehalf of GE—visiting factories, making speeches at schools, anddoing the dinner circuit in communities where GE had a presence—promoting the corporation’s stridently individualist antiunion andantigovernment vision.
From a philosophical viewpoint, Reagan grew up in Dixon, Illinois a small town (surrounded by farmland) in North West-ish Illinois roughly on the border of the political borders of what Colin Woodard calls The Midlands and Greater Appalachia. He seems to have been a Midlander for the first half of his life, but obviously had an easy time moving to a more Greater Appalachia viewpoint when working for GE.
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