American Strategic Deception Bureau

　Therefore, Senator McCarthy, who started this wave of literary inquisition, also has the nickname "American Hitler".

　Although Senator McCarthy was defeated in 1954, the Committee on Un-American Activities was not disbanded until 1969.

　Obviously, for the United States' soft power that will dominate the world in the future, such strict review and heavy-handed crackdown will be tantamount to destroying its own strength.

　Throughout the 1950s, Hollywood was devastated by this literary inquisition. Films with even the slightest bit of thought, or simply those that were reported for "groundless" crimes, were prevented from being made or released. Countless directors and actors were implicated and banned.

　During the years when McCarthyism was at its peak, only a few romances and musicals, as well as American-style "mainstream" tribute films, could barely pass censorship and be released. Even some Westerns, which focused on fighting violence and upholding justice, were rejected for "promoting criminal ideology"...

　(Many old American films made in the 1950s were banned for several years, and some were not released until the 1960s.)

　It is similar to how the ancient Chinese feudal dynasties banned "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and other "anti-books", and also banned "Jin Ping Mei".

　When Hollywood only allows one voice to remain, the entire film and television industry will naturally die.

　In fact, according to Senator McCarthy's idea, he probably wanted to raze the entire Hollywood along with Disneyland.

　As for destroying America's soft power? Come on, the US today relies on its fists and money to beat the world. Why does it need soft power?

　The entertainment industry is just known for its high exposure and influence. The GDP figures it actually creates are not worth mentioning at all.

　Look at the Soviet Union across the Iron Curtain. After World War II, they only made four or five films a year, but the voice of the Kremlin still resounded halfway around the world.

　Therefore, soft power and cultural output are all weak behaviors of women. Tough guys should beat up anyone who disobeys!

　Some of McCarthy's supporters even felt that McCarthy was not tough enough and should be more severe, and wanted to re-issue Prohibition!

　Only because of the terrible disaster caused by the national prohibition in the 1920s, this fantasy that ignored reality was not turned into practice again.

　Then, relying on McCarthyism to block public opinion, the US government and military during this period were the most inhumane - they did things like releasing viruses in their own subways, releasing plagues in San Francisco and Los Angeles, arresting their own citizens to test poisons, and other unethical operations without any scruples.

　To put it bluntly, if McCarthyism continues to prevail in the United States, the country's soft power will basically be ruined.

　——Wars are fought only for resources, culture is bleak, technology is stifled by politics, and people are so poor that only money is left... Isn't this the Saudi dog family?

　It was precisely because of the harsh control in the 1950s that American hippies in the 1960s were so rebellious, which was clearly a backlash against the McCarthy movement.

　—Since ancient times, the more something is forbidden, the less it can be forbidden. The more severe the suppression, the more terrifying the rebound.

　As the saying goes, overcorrection is necessary. The more outrageous the Americans turned right during the wave of McCarthyism, the more outrageous their subsequent left turn will only be.

　Anyone who has been treated like a prisoner or a senior high school student and has been subjected to constant nagging and strict discipline for more than ten years would find it difficult not to develop rebellious thoughts!

　Ahem, back to the topic. Therefore, in the 1950s when literary inquisition was prevalent and everywhere was in turmoil, no matter what Phiri wrote or filmed in the United States, there was a risk of being banned, and he might even be accused of "selling out the country and collaborating with the Soviet Union" and "corrupting the people's hearts".

　——The future king of art, President Reagan, is now working as a spy in Hollywood, thinking every day about how to fabricate charges and frame his colleagues!

　There is also the seemingly amiable Uncle Walt Disney, who is also making a list of the "Hollywood Blacklist", using McCarthy's power to ban competitors and whitewash his own role in World War II.

　He once praised the dark history of the Nazis (Uncle Disney is really not a good person).

　——A truly high-end business war does not rely on price competition, but on getting the government to help you fight your competitors!

　There are countless whistleblowers across the United States who are staring with bloodshot eyes, trying to find fault and report a few celebrities to improve their own grades.

　Therefore, in the era of "White Terror" when the American version of literary inquisition was so brutal, it was not a good idea to rashly become a plagiarist.

　Those classic works of later generations were seen by the "Committee on Un-American Activities" and basically failed to pass the review, and the authors were even arrested.

　Twenty years later, an American director was accused of "smearing the image of the United States" simply because he made a story about homeless people!

　In this kind of social atmosphere where people are easily blamed, how can people dare to boldly break through and innovate in the entertainment industry and engage in literary and artistic creation?

　Chapter 2: Ferry King doesn't want to pursue his Hollywood dream

　Moreover, unlike those young men and women who grew up dreaming of becoming stars and drinking vegetable juice to stay in shape, as a time traveler from the future and a native of Hollywood in this life, Fili's view of the Hollywood world of fame and fortune is not subject to any special filters.

　On the contrary, he had long seen through the glamorous dream of becoming a star and understood the bleak background of this industry.

　The entertainment industry is actually a very small circle. Its impact on the country and the people is not very big, so the corresponding power is naturally limited.

　Even decades later, in the Internet era of "entertainment to death", the entertainment industry actually did not have much output value.

　The box office revenue of a hit movie is only a few billion RMB at most; however, the sales of Xiaomi’s newly released mobile phone exceeded 100 million RMB in one minute.

　Even if the market capitalization of all entertainment companies in the world were added together, it would probably not be comparable to giants like Microsoft and Apple.

　Not to mention the time when television was just becoming popular, the total economic output of the entire Hollywood film and television industry was not as much as that of an ordinary American giant company!

　Therefore, the true value of these entertainment stars is naturally very exaggerated, and their social status is not as high as it seems.

　So, those idol stars and directors in the film and television industry do seem very glamorous, and their fame can sometimes even be compared with that of politicians and celebrities. But actors are ultimately just actors, at best just embellishments on the social stage, and garbage cans and black gloves to divert public attention.

　For example, whenever there was an election, Fieri's father, Patrick, would often complain at the dinner table: "Some naive female stars think they have a lot of fans, so one vote can definitely count as 10,000 votes when voting. But the facts prove that one of their votes is just one vote..."

　And the noble ladies in New York and Washington, even until the 21st century, still openly declared that "ladies don't associate with actors"!

　Furthermore, Fieri was only the youngest son of the Kim family, with three older brothers and one older sister. He likely wouldn't receive a share of his father's Hollywood fortune. He had to forge his own path, and the best his family could do was offer him some guidance and connections.

　In view of this, Fili thought about it, reviewed classic cases in his mind, consolidated the industry's top strategies, connected and cultivated thought models, opened up the key path to detonation, and finally decided not to focus on making movies, but to stay in Hollywood, which is actually not a big pool.

　——Generally speaking, no matter which country, if you want to describe someone as very powerful, you usually have to say that he is "rich and powerful."

　If you only have money but no power, you are destined to hit the ceiling soon and become fat meat in other people's mouths.

　Therefore, Hollywood's Vanity Fair is, at best, just a virtual game played by actors. The real Vanity Fair lies in Washington!

　Just like the Tang Dynasty poets Li Bai and Gao Shi who dreamed of becoming officials all their lives, Fili felt that he should also try his hand at a career in officialdom!

　——In China, the first-class people are officials, the second-class people are businessmen, and the third-class people curse the businessmen while working for them.

　The situation in the United States is actually similar, but elected government officials are often closer to businessmen, thus creating the illusion that officials are less powerful than businessmen.

　However, in reality, American officials are still first-class people. It's just that American businessmen and officials are often family members, and businessmen ruling the country is no mere rhetoric. Therefore, the reason American businessmen are so powerful is essentially because a small group of people monopolize power and control both politics and the economy.

　If you can't squeeze into this small circle, then no matter how big your business is, you will just be a fat sheep whose property can be confiscated at any time.

　Elon Musk, the "Iron Man" of later generations, couldn't fit into this small circle. Even after becoming the world's richest man, he still lived on thin ice.

　——Real wealthy and powerful families with a solid background will not appear on the wealth list.

　Those exposed on the list are generally either white gloves or fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

　The so-called Forbes wealth list is nothing more than a guide to slaughtering pigs!

　Moreover, the United States is a federal system with a relatively low degree of centralization, making it difficult for the president to interfere in the internal affairs of the states. As a result, some local governments often openly unite with the business community to oppose the central government and challenge the president, which sometimes makes the White House look weak.

　In essence, this is still a confrontation between the first-class people, but the first-class people may not be sitting on the central side.

　Then, since you are determined to go into politics and become a first-class person, there are probably several ways to pursue a career in politics in the United States.

　One way is to work as an assistant to a congressman, state legislator or other important person for a few years, and then see how you

　If you do well, you will get a letter of recommendation from your benefactor, which will help you find a job in the government, university or enterprise. If you fail, you will naturally be treated like a temporary worker in the future, taking the blame and being kicked out.

　Many celebrities started their careers this way. For example, Bill Gates, who claimed to have dropped out of school to start a business, once worked as an assistant to a congressman in 1971.

　This path is a shortcut, with a quick start. If you are lucky, you can run for election and become a member of Congress in your thirties.

　However, if the family power is not strong enough, its foundation may be unstable, and it may lack grassroots experience and be out of touch with reality.

　What’s even worse is that if you are involved in a scandal in the state legislature or Congress, you may become infamous or be suppressed, and your career will end there.

　Those guys who were forced to retire from politics when they were only in their thirties or forties basically all wanted to become civil servants but encountered similar bad luck.

　In addition to being an assistant, another way is to follow President Reagan and Governor Schwarzenegger, become a star first, and then rely on your fame on the screen to run for mayor or governor... Of course, this is a "miscellaneous path", which is relatively more difficult and has a lower success rate.

　Another option is to become a civil servant, working your way up from the grassroots level. While this approach is naturally slow, and you might get stuck at a certain step, the upside is that you can lay a solid foundation and build your own team and network as you climb.

　In other words, as a civil servant or an administrative officer, even if you are stuck in a certain position, you can generally stay in that position until retirement.

　But if it is a civil servant elected, it is still unknown whether he can survive until the next election.

　Both paths have their pros and cons, but considering that my eldest brother Bernard has returned from his internship in Washington, he is already running for Los Angeles City Council.

　In order to avoid competing with his family members for the same track and wasting the family's limited social resources, Fili thought he should take the civil service exam.

　More importantly, as the biggest plug-in in Rebirth Life, the system given to Firi by the God of Lies, Xirik, can't wait to urge the host to go out and deceive people and make its creator feel more present!

　Chapter 3: The Pentagon's Great Salesman

　Well, since Firi's system comes from the Prince of Lies, Xirik, it is naturally a system that helps people lie.

　However, unlike the Dark Sun "God" in the DND setting who looked down on all gods and was self-centered, by the time Xirik contacted the time traveler Firi, the situation of this prince of lies seemed to have become extremely miserable, and he had fallen from a powerful god to a weak god in one breath.

　He once possessed the five major priesthoods of lies, murder, conspiracy, fraud, and illusion, but he had lost three of them in the melee between Xirik's own death and the gods. Only the core priesthood of lies and the supplementary priesthood of illusion remained.

　Perhaps it was precisely because of his miserable life, where his life was going from bad to worse, that Xirik cast a wide net across the multiverse to promote his faith...

　However, Xirik's weakness and defeat were actually a good thing for Firi in a sense.

　——Because the evil priesthoods of murder, fraud, conspiracy, etc. have been lost one after another, the current Prince of Lies, Xirik, no longer requires his believers to create destruction and murder, nor does he take pleasure in letting people kill each other and hold blood sacrifices. Instead, he only regards tricking and deceiving people as his only priority.

　This certainly doesn't mean that the current Prince of Lies, Cyric, has renounced evil and embraced good. It simply means that since death, blood sacrifice, and slaughter no longer please the now-defunct Prince of Lies, Cyric's followers no longer have the motivation to engage in such activities, instead focusing on being liars.

　It is roughly similar to the "Zuowang Dao" in a certain fantasy novel, advocating all kinds of "crazy fun" that trick people.

　After all, only a tiny minority of people are keen on killing. If human sacrifices offered no benefit, even the most evil would be too lazy to do them.

　Therefore, the system that the time traveler Firi obtained from the God of Lies (God of Madness) Xirik is a very simple deceptive system.

　As long as the host can lie and fool people, no matter whether the target is good or bad, the bigger the lie and the more people are fooled, the higher the reward will be!

　So, after graduating from college, the time traveler Firi found a way to get a military civilian job at the Pentagon.

　There's no way around it. In today's America, people are still considered to have a simple and honest character and a strong sense of martial virtue. If someone has military service experience or medals on their chest, not only is it considered prestigious to mention it, it's also a great political asset.

　As for the stigmatization of the status of soldiers and young people evading military service in droves, those things happened after the Vietnam War.

　But Fili had never attended military school and didn't want to be a private. He wanted to get a job at the Pentagon to gain some military honors, so he could only be a civilian civil servant.

　Moreover, he had traveled through time at an odd time. World War II and the Korean War had already ended, and the Vietnam War hadn't even begun. He had no military merit to earn medals. In this peaceful and prosperous time with no wars to fight, the careers of military civilians were no worse than those of regular officers; perhaps there were even more opportunities!

　From then on, Firi fully utilized his talents and external bonuses to become a professional salesman in the Pentagon.

　Huh? A Contractor of the God of Lies being a salesman is certainly a good fit, but... does the Pentagon also need salesmen?

　The United States does not have a production and construction corps. Isn't the military generally a buyer who signs checks?

　the answer is

　...Yes, the Pentagon needs salesmen too.

　At least, the Pentagon's War Assets Administration (WAA) absolutely needs non-mainstream military personnel like "salesmen"...

　-

　The so-called War Assets Administration, abbreviated as WAA, is a specialized agency established by the United States after World War II to sell off its huge inventory of military supplies.

　——As the "arsenal of democracy", the United States during World War II had to supply its own army with a total strength of 10 million, while also providing blood transfusions to the friendly forces of many anti-fascist allies. The national industrial system was almost working at full capacity to produce, and the Pentagon then took over.

　No matter what kind of military supplies it is, as long as you dare to produce it, I will take it!

　However, wars always break out and end at irregular intervals, and there is no way to make advance arrangements. As a result, at the end of the world war, the US military not only had astronomical amounts of surplus supplies that had not been used up, but also had a large number of orders that had not been produced in time.

　How much surplus material is there from this World War?

　According to the currency value at the time, the total estimated value exceeded 340 billion US dollars - equivalent to 6000 billion US dollars today, with more than 400 million categories. The product catalog alone had two large stacks of 28 books, each stack was more than 2 meters high. The items listed on it ranged from dog sleds issued to the Greenland base to mosquito nets used by soldiers fighting in the South Pacific, from bullets to airplanes, warships and tanks, distributed in 181 warehouses across the United States.

　This figure exceeded the total assets of any American financial group at that time.

　With assets worth such an astronomical amount, it would take a very long time to use or sell them, even if it was given away for free.

　So, after its establishment, the WAA sold five years of used goods to recoup funds for the Pentagon. But before the sales were complete, the Korean War erupted with the sound of a cannon on the 38th parallel. WAA operations were temporarily frozen, and all unsold supplies were returned for secondary use on the Korean battlefield.

　After another three years of bloody fighting, with the signing of the armistice agreement in Panmunjom and the smoke of war dissipating on the Korean Peninsula, WAA reopened for business.

　In addition to the unused World War II surplus materials, this department also had to find a way to sell various military supplies produced during the Korean War.

　Among all the surplus materials, the easiest to sell was a small military steel pipe cart. Housewives could push it to go shopping, and farmers could use it to pull things to the fields. In those days, there were no electric three-wheeled vehicles, and trucks were also very heavy, so farming relied more on manpower.

　The second is jeeps and motorcycles. During World War II, in order to prioritize the supply of military vehicles, the United States basically stopped the production line of civilian vehicles. Ordinary people had money but nowhere to buy new cars, which invisibly accumulated a huge hungry market with no demand.

　Even if the war ends suddenly, it will take some transition time for the relevant manufacturers to convert their military vehicle production lines back to civilian vehicle production lines.

　Therefore, before the first batch of newly produced civilian vehicles came on the market, the jeeps, motorcycles and even bicycles eliminated from the military would naturally be sold like hot cakes among the people - because it was a seller's market, these vehicles were extremely popular in the market, just like a long-awaited rain after a drought.

　Next, daily necessities such as typewriters, notebooks and stationery for office use, blankets for sleeping, etc., also sold well.

　Although anti-aircraft balloons are ugly, they can be used as advertising balloons after letters are painted on the airbags and banners are hung underneath, and they can be sold at a discount.

　The Netherlands and Norway bought a large number of old ships. Besides the Liberty ships, many escort carriers were converted back into cargo ships. Italy purchased several production lines for military shoes and uniforms, intending to repurpose them to revive its clothing industry. East Asia bought large quantities of flour on credit to stave off famine.

　But the problem was that at that time, except for the United States, other countries had basically no cash, so they could only buy on credit, credit, and more credit.

　In the end, they turned into a lot of bad debts.

　What's even more frightening is that, regardless of whether the debt can be collected, the easy-to-sell items mentioned above only account for one-seventh of WAA's total assets. The remaining tents, mosquito nets, medical equipment, aircraft parts, repair tools, etc. are almost unpopular and cannot be sold even if they are sold on credit or at a discount.