For some time now, opponents to equitable, universal health care have been smearing proponents of Canada's "signature" social program, Medicare, by using a corporate "communications" strategy known as "FUD," which stands for Fear Uncertainty Doubt.
In the U.S, the dynamic played out fairly recently, with the launch of Michael Moore's film, Sicko. According to Wendell Potter, an American insurance industry whistleblower, the insurance industry, horrified by the poignancy of the documentary, targeted Michael Moore with a "FUD" attack.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/mark-taliano/harper-myths_b_3663204.html
Potter explains that the CIGNA insurance company tried to undermine Moore by portraying him as a communist, or a socialist, and as someone who was trying to undermine the American Dream.
Since a universal health care program would save American lives and give many more Americans the liberty to strive for the mythical American Dream, the tactic seems counter-intuitive.
However, the appeal to emotions is a very powerful strategy. For decades, the advertising industry has successfully associated cigarette smoking, (and a multitude of other products,) with "freedom," and other abstractions. People not only "buy" the messages, but they buy the products as well.
Similar Psy-Ops strategies are being employed in Canada under the Harper reign.
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